Creative
Collaborations
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Welcome
to the 27th Annual Creative Collaborations Undergraduate
Research Conference!
This annual forum celebrates the research, scholarship and creative accomplishments of students in
all disciplines. The high-quality work you see reflects the intellectual curiosity of our undergraduate
students and their ability to make substantial contributions to society. Creative Collaborations also
serves to showcase the commitment of our distinguished faculty in mentoring the next generation
of research leaders, as well as USD’s long-standing commitment to academic excellence by providing
students with experiential and engaged learning opportunities.
This year, more than 200 abstracts were submitted by students across a broad range of disciplines.
We encourage you to visit students as they present their research in poster, interactive and visual arts
exhibits. In keeping with the university’s commitment to our strategic planning pathways, engaged
scholarship conducted on campus and presented today is practicing “Changemaking,” and has the
potential to make real differences in knowledge and practice.
Among the presentations are studies that included measuring Affordable Care Act’s impact on
insurance coverage and health outcomes using a difference-in-differences regression model;
investigating the effects of drought on aquatic macroinvertebrate communities; exploring how a
politician’s gender and sexual orientation affected a voter’s choice; observing and recording an effective
transfer of design and building instructions of an assistive device as a community project in Nigeria;
examining how membrane technology can be used for gas separation, distillation, and filtration, areas
of research potentially affecting environmental protection, water shortages, and energy consumption;
and completing the next phase of the Tudor Plays Project, a multi-year, interdisciplinary project arising
from the Digital Humanities initiative and the new Humanities Center.
Creative Collaborations is part of Research Week at USD (April 17-21, 2017), which showcases
research activities across the university and honors students and faculty members who have challenged
themselves to extend learning beyond the classroom. We invite you to view and experience a variety
of presentations during this celebration of faculty-student scholarly collaboration. Congratulations
to all the student presenters and faculty members participating in this year’s Creative Collaborations
Undergraduate Research Conference!
Sincerely,
Andrew T. Allen, PhD
Vice President and Provost April 18 and 20, 2017 • 12 – 2 p.m.
Student-faculty
University of San Diego • Hahn University Center
Research
www.sandiego.edu/cc-urc
Scholarship
Office of Undergraduate Research
Creative Works
Carole Huston, PhD
Associate Provost
Maritza Castellanos
Program Assistant
Schedule
Welcome
12 p.m.
Director, Office of Undergraduate Research
Hahn University Center Forums
Student Presentations
Tuesday, April 18
12:10 to 2 p.m.
Visual Arts Exhibits: Student Life Pavilion Exhibit Hall
12:10 to 1 p.m.
Session One (Presentations 1-114)
Poster Presentations: Hahn University Center Forums
Interactive Exhibits: Hahn University Center Forums, Alcoves, La Gran Terraza Patio
1:10 to 2 p.m.
Session Two (Presentations 1-115)
Poster Presentations: Hahn University Center Forums
Interactive Exhibits: Hahn University Center Forums, alcoves, La Gran Terraza Patio
Thursday, April 20
12:10 to 2 p.m.
Visual Arts Exhibits: Student Life Pavilion Exhibit Hall
12:10 to 1 p.m.
Session One (Presentations 1-116)
Poster Presentations: Hahn University Center Forums
Interactive Exhibits: Hahn University Center Forums, Alcoves, La Gran Terraza Patio
1:10 to 2 p.m.
Session Two (Presentations 1-114)
Poster Presentations: Hahn University Center Forums
Interactive Exhibits: Hahn University Center Forums, alcoves, La Gran Terraza Patio
Abstract Book
In keeping with USD’s commitment to sustainability, the 2017 abstract book is available on the mySDmobile app during
Research Week, and can be found online at www.sandiego.edu/cc-urc.
Research Week
Creative Collaborations Undergraduate Research Conference is part of USD’s Research Week. For more information about
offerings, please visit www.sandiego.edu/osp/research-week/index.php.
Research Week is from April 18-21.
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Day One, Session I, Interactive Exhibits
Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
VA/Exhibit Hall
A Garden Compendium
EMILY MUELLER and John Halaka
In remembering painful events, a destructive cycle of reliving memories begins. This creates a preoccupation with the past
that is characterized with guilt and longing for previous innocence. With this project, I attempt to unpack these issues and
come to some personal reconciliation. I have conducted this research through a series of paintings that are a compendium of
haunting memories. Each image draws on fragments of my history, and collectively, the series outlines a journey from a dark
past to future possibilities. The figures in the paintings reference a pursuit of the innocence of my departed youth. They are
placed among dense patches of plants that become grotesque gardens, which are allegorical to the overbearing presence of
recollection. The relationship between the figures and the landscape is one of simultaneous tension and fluidity that suggests
the duality of being stuck in a recreated past while life continues. With this project, I did not come to any concrete conclusion
but instead came to understand and explore the issues that avail me. I wish to present these matters in a way that is truthful
and reflective of the way I was feeling at the time they were painted. In doing this, I hope to gain some rapprochement and
appeal to a wider audience that can relate and find comfort in my artwork.
GO mobile!
Download the
mySDMobile app for
information on student
presenters, presentation
times & presentation
locations, all from the
palm of your hand!
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Day One, Session I, Poster Presentations
of psychology courses taken) would impact preference for certain consequences. Participants were asked to read scenarios
describing a child’s behavior and rank their preference of the consequence to be administered from a set of provided options.
Results and conclusions will be discussed.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Are Millennials Really Changing the Workplace? An exploration of generational
differences in attitudes toward leadership, the workday, and person-job fit
ALLISON KNAPP and Stephen Pearlberg
Participants (n=100) responded to a twelve-item online survey designed to assess the workplace preferences of two cohort
populations commonly referred to as Millennials and Generation X. Samples were obtained from an undergraduate population
of Introductory Psychology students at the University of San Diego and from a district in Redwood City, CA accessed
through Nextdoor, a private social network. Participants were prompted to imagine an ideal job ten years into their career
before completing the survey items involving attitudes about four distinct constructs: Personal vs. Team benefit, Meaning vs.
Money, Creative freedom vs. Structure, and Rewarding vs. Constructive leadership. Participants then indicated the extent to
which they preferred statements representing opposite dimensions of each construct and ranked the relative importance of
various workplace characteristics. Prior research has suggested that Millennials and Generation X differentially value personal
development, work aligned with their interests, autonomous task structure, and encouragement from their managers. We
hypothesized that Millennials would indicate preference for personal over team benefit, meaning over money, creative freedom
over structure, and positive reinforcement over constructive feedback. Responses have been collected from the Millennial
population, but this Abstract will change as we complete the collection of Generation X responses.
The Synthesis of Peptide-Based Polymers by Microwave-Assisted RAFT
Polymerization
AMANDA ENNIS, Alisson Magsumbol and Joan Schellinger
Peptide-based polymers have a wide variety of useful applications such as controlled drug delivery, tissue engineering, and
biosensors. A way in which to synthesize these polymers is by microwave-assisted reversible addition-fragmentation chaintransfer (RAFT) polymerization. RAFT polymerization is one of the most important and versatile methods for controlling
radical polymerizations. Our research is looking to optimize the synthesis of peptide-based polymers through this method.
The simple monomer aminopropylmethacrylamide (APMA) is used in the polymerization and the resulting polymer is
characterized through the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The data thus far indicates that a significant amount of
conversion is taking place. Future work will be to characterize the simple monomer methacyloyl-L-lysine (Ma-Lys) by the
same method.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Food For Thought: An Evaluation of the Impact Food Insecurity Has On Educational
Achievement
The Effects of Water Temperature on Crops in an Aquaponic System
The state of Mississippi holds the highest ranking of food insecurity and the second lowest ranking for educational
achievement in the country. With a failing school system, the test scores gathered from fourth graders within the 84 counties
of Mississippi will be evaluated to determine the relationship between food insecurity and academic performance. Various
additional variables will be included in the regression to test how significant the impact of food insecurity is relative to
other researched factors on a student’s environment. The results of this study can potentially implicate possible solutions to
reforming the education system in Mississippi as well as addressing hunger in our country.
ANASTASIA ZUNIGA and Alyson Ma
ALYSSA FABOORG and Michel Boudrias
This project looks at the effects that water temperature has on various crops in an aquaponic system. The plants are grown
in three different water temperatures, and measurements of their growth are taken weekly. This study aims to look at the
possibility of growing summer and winter crops outside of their growing season by simply having the water temperature
change.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Specific Immunoglobulin E Antibodies
The ABCs of ABA: Comparing Consequence Preferences for Maladaptive Behavior in
Children on the Autism Spectrum
ALYSSA SERCEKI and Rebekah Wanic
Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA, is a common therapeutic technique that has been implemented since the 1960s as a
method of teaching appropriate social and functional behaviors to children on the Autism Spectrum and related disorders.
ABA focuses on altering behavior by controlling the antecedents and consequences related to the targeted behavior. ABA
is only implemented by trained practitioners, who select from a variety of consequence options when determining how
to modify a given child’s behavior. Because ABA is rooted in behavioral psychology and techniques of learning theory, it is
possible that psychological education may play a role in the determination of appropriate consequences for the child. The aim
of the present study is to determine whether differential exposure to psychological concepts (operationalized by the number
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
/ Undergraduate Research Conference
ANDREW STIEB and Joachim Latzer
Immunoglobulin E (IgE) is an allergen-specific antibody designed to rid the body of any allergenic or pathogenic proteins.
It serves a “gate-keeper function” by recognizing and attacking potentially harmful foreign material as soon as it enters the
body. For unknown reasons, food-allergic individuals develop food-specific IgE (sIgE) antibodies to proteins in certain foods
that are harmless to the non-allergic population. The goal of this project was to examine the binding-free energies, binding
mechanisms, and any potential intermediates of two well-documented sIgE-antigen complexes, Beta-lactoglobulin (BLG) and
PhPL2. In order to accomplish this, we used the Amber suite to isolate the amino acids involved in the bond between the
bound structures, separate the bound proteins, and re-bind the antigen and antibody. At regular intervals during the rebinding
process, we took snapshots in order to understand exactly how each antigen bound to its respective sIgE. The next step of our
research is to compare the binding mechanism of allergenic BLG and its respective sIgE to the binding mechanism of sIgE to
mutated forms of BLG that have been experimentally shown to be hypoallergenic.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
How Has the Implementation of NAFTA Affected the Economic Standard of Living in
Mexico?
Below C Level: Visualizing x86 Stack Operation
ARTURO ENRIQUEZ DE RIVERA and Alyson Ma
A vast majority of programmers write software in a high-level computer language (e.g. C) that is automatically compiled
into a lower-level machine language consisting of a series of 0’s and 1’s. In the middle stands x86 assembly language that
can illuminate the inner functioning of a computer, an integral part of a CS student’s education. While easier to understand,
students often have difficulty visualizing how the execution of an x86 program affects its memory, especially in an area called
the stack. This project aims to develop an intuitive program to aid in this visualization, while addressing the shortcomings of
related programs. In order to assist programmers new to x86 to picture the operation of the stack, this project allows the user
to create or import a list of x86 instructions while providing specific information describing relevant registers, values, and
instructions. An image of a stack is generated and updated when the user progresses through the list. By using this program,
students will save time in their quest to understand this complex topic.
This research paper analyses the economic standard of living in Mexico after the implementation of NAFTA in 1994. The
econometric approach is based on panel data, measuring the economic situation before and after NAFTA with variables such
as FDI, job growth, exports, poverty level, emigration rate, and GDP. The hypothesis states that lowering tariff rates and
investment restrictions will lead to an increase in exports, FDI, and job creation, thus increasing the GDP in the Mexican
economy. Liberalization in Mexico should attract foreign capital and induce economic growth in the nation with the hopes of
alleviating the poverty rate throughout the country.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Impact of Photo Angle on Food Evaluation and Consumption
AUSTIN JACOBS and Morgan Poor
Food photography is an increasingly popular phenomenon, especially on social media. There are over 208 million photos on
Instagram with #food. There is a growing trend to showcase food on social media, as both health and “food art” has become a
growing part of popular culture. The purpose of this project is to explore how the photo angle utilized in the image influences
a number of consumer outcomes, including evaluations of the food itself as well as the company and desire to interact with
the image. Specifically, pictures of food commonly employ either a _ angle (as if you were sitting at the table ready to take a
bite of the food) or an overhead angle (to get a bird’s-eye view of the food). Through a series of four experiments, we show that
photos of food taken from a _ angle are evaluated better in terms of perceived taste, attractiveness, and desire to eat the food,
while photos of food taken from an overhead angle create brand perceptions associated with progressiveness and trendiness.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Educational Media Usage in Elementary and Middle School Classrooms: A
Qualitative Interview Study
CAITLIN FOGARTY and Kristin Moran
Educational technology use in elementary school classrooms can pose benefits but also challenges to children’s engagement
and material retention as observed by teachers who use educational technology in their own classrooms. The near ubiquity
of media in children’s lives points to its potential influence on their development, but also presents a valuable opportunity for
providing rich educational media experiences. This project explores past research using theories such as the social cognitive
theory and Piaget’s theory of cognitive development to understand the implications of media on both child development and
academic enhancement. In addition, general studies on growing media usage and effects on children in this digital age will be
explored. This case study uses interviews with ten elementary school teachers in the San Diego area, whose responses offer a
unique firsthand insight on the observable effects of educational media usage in the classroom. The qualitative data collected
will be used to analyze the nature of the role that technology plays in the classroom. Themes from these interviews will offer
valuable information to educators about the impact of educational media in the classroom, benefits for children’s learning,
and challenges for the cognitive development of young students that might arise from the growing usage of media. Keywords:
educational media, cognitive development, elementary classrooms
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CAITLIN FANNING and Saturnino Garcia
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Role and Identification of Aphid Salivary Proteins Involved in Plant Defense
Responses
CHARLI WORTH, Steven Morrison, and Lisa Baird
Peroxidase activity in switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) increases following infestation by yellow sugarcane aphid (Sipha flava).
To aid in feeding, YSA inject their saliva into the plant. Previous studies have shown peroxidase is synthesized in response
to aphid feeding and is associated with the plant’s defense mechanism. Our research indicated that only the presence of
components of aphid saliva, not damage to leaf itself, was needed to induce a response in the switchgrass defense mechanism.
This study investigated the specific proteins found in aphid saliva responsible for the production of increased peroxidase
activity. Switchgrass was planted in standard potting soil and grown to a fifth leaf stage. Aphids were harvested from infested
sorghum leaves and boiled and non-boiled aphid extract was mixed into a DI-water /surfactant mixture that was applied to
switchgrass leaf sections. Leaves harvested seven days following treatment with non-boiled aphid extract showed twice the
specific activity of peroxidase compared to control plants in Summer and Kanlow. Leaves treated with boiled aphid extract
showed no significant increase of peroxidase activity. The constitutive specific activity of peroxidase was also higher in Kanlow
compared to Summer. Salivary proteins of aphids were collected after a 48-hour period of feeding on a cache using 15%
sucrose solution. The solution was concentrated, digested, and analyzed using tandem LCMS. Data on aphid saliva peptides
identified will be presented.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
On Alternate Techniques for Fluid Flow Anomaly Detection in Intravenous Pump
Infusion Sets
ED ALEXANDER, Nicholas Addiego, Jumana Jamal, Shannon Bailey and Shastri Venkat
This research explores alternative detection methods featuring the use of ultrasound or induced vibration to recognize when
failure conditions are present within an intravenous pump infusion set. The objective is to develop a clearer understanding
of the flow inside an infusion set to better recognize when alarms should be triggered to reduce the number of false alarms
triggered by inaccurate failure detection. Unnecessary intravenous pump alarms require medical professionals to waste time
verifying the pumping conditions when this time could be applied to the care of other patients with more immediate needs.
This project aims to explore the feasibility of three different detection techniques that were researched and developed over the
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past year. The first of these concepts uses two sets of piezo disk transducers to generate and receive an ultrasonic signal which
can be used to count drops and monitor the volume of the fluid present in the drip chamber section of an intravenous line.
The second concept explores using a single piezo disk transducer to generate and receive an ultrasonic signal to monitor the
volume of the fluid present in the drip chamber with enough accuracy to recognize when drops of fluid have fallen. The third
concept uses a vibrational motor to induce energy to the top portion of the intravenous infusion set. It is important study how
the residual vibrations detected further down the set change depending on the different failure conditions which are imposed
on the system.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Clinician Views on Ways to Present Timeout in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy to
Culturally Diverse Families
YESSICA GREEN, ELLEY BERG, Berta Erika Luis-Sanchez, Gerri Zerr and Kristen McCabe, May Yeh
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) has been shown to successfully reduce disruptive behavior in children. Nevertheless,
ethnic minority (EM) families are at increased risk for poorer PCIT outcomes associated with lower treatment engagement.
A contributor to low engagement may be parenting styles incompatible with PCIT components. Timeout, a key technique
employed during the discipline phase of PCIT, may be differentially perceived by parents endorsing a strict and harsh
approach to discipline compared to parents who feel uncomfortable disciplining their child. Identifying ways of presenting
timeout consistent with parenting style may contribute to improved treatment engagement among EM families. In the present
study, a total of 10 PCIT-certified clinicians who have had at least 150 hours conducting PCIT with EM families were recruited
to participate in a one to one-and-a-half-hour qualitative interview to provide insight on ways in which PCIT may be adapted
for culturally-diverse families. Clinicians in this study reported conducting PCIT for an average of 8.90 years (SD = 8.29).
Sixty percent of clinicians reported currently conducting PCIT at a community clinic, 10 % at a hospital/medical facility,
10% at a university clinic, 10% at a child welfare agency, and 10% through in-home services. Data collection is complete,
and all interviews have been transcribed. Data will be analyzed following the Framework Analysis approach to determine
clinician views on distinct ways of presenting timeout (Ritchie & Spencer, 1994). Results of this study will be discussed and
implications for adapting the PCIT protocol that could be tailored to families based on parenting style will be provided.
Using Biophysical Characterization to Explore Suppressor of IKKepsilon Structure
MEGAN L. MACHEK, FLOWREEN SHIKWANA, SASHA-KAYE I. GRAHAM, IAN D. MINZER, Ryan Wey, Richard Cruz, J.
Ellis Bell and Jessica Bell
The innate immune system is the first line of defense against pathogens. Suppressor of IKKepsilon (SIKE) is a downstream
component of the antiviral TLR3 innate immune pathway, although its function in this pathway has not yet been determined.
In order to derive information about SIKE function, we undertook characterization of SIKE structure to determine a structurefunction relationship. Using PHYRE2, a SIKE model of the human isoform was predicted. The secondary structure of SIKE
was assessed via circular dichroism. Thermal melts (15-80_C) showed a linear, rather than sigmoidal, unfolding transition.
Addition of up to 25% trifluoroethanol to stabilize helical structure increased the helical content of SIKE by 35%. Fluorescence
polarization and size exclusion chromatography assessed the solution size of SIKE (23 kDa) with respect to globular standards.
Limited proteolysis coupled to tandem mass spectrometry as well as crosslinking assessed by SDS-PAGE mapped accessible
SIKE sequences and association between SIKE monomers, respectively. Crosslinking with bis(sulfosuccinimidyl)suberate
(BS3) identified predominantly a dimer species as well as a smaller proportion of a tetrameric species. 3DLigandSite proposed
a zinc binding site. To confirm an interaction between SIKE and divalent cations, SIKE-ANS titration and fluorescence-based
thermal shift assays were completed +/- Mg, Mn, Ca, and Zn. In conclusion, using various biophysical techniques, we have
found that SIKE’s structure has regions of disorder bookended by alpha helices; SIKE monomers associate primarily into a
dimeric species; divalent metals contribute to SIKE stabilization, and the homology model presented is consistent with these
biophysical characterizations.
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
The Effects of Zoning Regulations on Residential Housing Value
JALEN SMITH and Alyson Ma
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Uncertainty Quantification using Polynomial Chaos Expansion in Numerical
Simulations of Spent Nuclear Fuel Assemblies
HARRISON SCHMACHTENBERGER and Imane Khalil
A novel method that incorporates Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) into numerical simulations of heat transfer for a 9x9 square
array of Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) assemblies in a Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) is introduced in this paper. Using a range
of fuel burn up power, the results predict the maximum temperature inside a 9x9 BWR fuel assembly to be 462 K. Current
modeling techniques used by researchers in the field to predict the heat transfer and the maximum temperature inside SNF
assemblies rely on commercial codes and address the uncertainty in the input parameters by running separate simulations
for different input parameters models. Polynomial Chaos Expansion (PCE) is incorporated into our computational models
in order to develop a surrogate that permits the efficient evaluation of the distribution of temperature and heat transfer
while accounting for all uncertain input parameters to our model. UQ computational methods generated results that are
encompassing of continuous ranges of variable parameters rather than discrete simulations to conduct sensitivity analysis on
heat transfer simulations of spent nuclear fuel assemblies.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
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Zoning regulations restrict the usage of land, which causes a reduced overall supply of land designated for residential housing
where zoning codes are used. With this restriction in the supply of land, we see a forced increase in the value of housing.
Observing factors attributed to altering the value of a single family home while accounting for zoning laws as the primary
factor will give us the overall effect of zoning regulations on the value of a given home.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Effectiveness of the Welfare State in California
RYAN FUHRMAN and Alyson Ma
For years, the basis of socio-political arguments have centered on the role of the government in the economy. To what extent
should the government control the outcomes in the economy? Should the government help those below the poverty line?
These questions have been at the core of the perpetually polarizing economic issues debated in politics. We know that our
government spends an exorbitant amount of money on the welfare support of citizens. The field of economics teaches that
every worker contributes to the growth of a state’s economy, which explains why the government supports the elimination of
poverty. I will analyze the welfare state in California, specifically the Temporary Aid to Needy Families. I will study whether
or not poverty is reduced in California by TANF. Previously studied is how policy adjustments have reduced the number of
people on welfare. While this might imply that people are better off, it does not conclude whether one’s means of subsistence
has improved significantly. From these past studies, we know that TANF has reduced the number of people on welfare. I will
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take this information further by studying how many people who have been on welfare actually move above the poverty line.
This is a better test of the effectiveness of TANF. Conclusions can lead to implications for policy adjustments to make the
welfare state in California more effective.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
On the Structure Orientation in Homogeneous Turbulent Shear Flows, Part I:
Analysis Method Development
Vehicle Information Communication and Telemetry Over Raceway Electromagnetic
Ether
AUSTIN PERRI, JACK LI, JASMINE YANG, Kathleen Kramer, James Gilb, Daniel Codd
A system is being designed to provide electrical safety features, vehicle diagnostics, and power for Torero Racing’s entry into
the Society of Automotive Engineers Baja Collegiate Design Competition. The system will be designed to meet competition
requirements and provide the required lights, alarms, and kill switches for the vehicle. The system will also increase the
competitive advantage of Torero Racing by providing voice communication and telemetry. With these features, Torero Racing
hopes to gain a competitive edge over their opponents during both the various races as well as in the design competition. The
vehicle diagnostics system will take the input of multiple sensors and transmit them into readable data for the pit team and
the driver. This project has already accomplished processing multiple sensors, design of the power system, and preliminary
communication design. Future work includes communicating data via the processors, outputting the data into a GUI and
dashboard, and integrating the system with the vehicle.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
ADAM F. MOREAU, Joylene C. Aguirre and Frank Jacobitz
Direct numerical simulations were performed to study the orientation of flow structures in homogeneous turbulent shear
flows. The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations were solved in the Rogallo frame with periodic boundary conditions.
Structures inclined in the vertical direction are observed in instantaneous fields of velocity and vorticity magnitude. The threedimensional two-point autocorrelation coefficient of velocity magnitude and vorticity magnitude is computed to quantify the
orientation of flow structures. Isosurfaces of the autocorrelation coefficient closely resemble an inclined ellipsoid, which is
directly related to the inclination angle of the flow structures in the vertical direction. A least-squares fit of an ellipsoid to the
isosurface was performed, and the inclination angle of flow structures was determined. The inclination angle was found to
depend upon the choice of isosurface value for very low and very high values. However, the angle reached a band of constant
values for non-extreme choices of isovalue. At low autocorrelation coefficient values (about 0 to 0.3), the isosurface no longer
represents the structure orientation and the surface is non-ellipsoid. At high autocorrelation coefficient values (about 0.7 to 1),
the number of data points making up the isosurface decreased such that the inclination angle is no longer well-defined. Within
the band of constant values (about 0.3 to 0.8), averaging was conducted to reduce uncertainty due to the use of a particular
isosurface value. The inclination angle of flow structures in homogeneous turbulent shear flows was determined to be 16.0_ or
19.2_ by this method for velocity magnitude or vorticity magnitude, respectively.
On the Structure Orientation in Homogeneous Turbulent Shear Flows, Part II:
Application to Stratified and Rotating Shear Flows
JOYLENE C AGUIRRE, ADAM F MOREAU, and Frank Jacobitz
Based on the results of two series of direct numerical simulations, the effect of stratification and rotation on the orientation
of flow structures is investigated in homogeneous turbulent shear flows. For stably stratified shear flows, the Richardson
number is varied from Ri = 0 to Ri = 10. The growth rate of the turbulent kinetic energy is observed to decrease with
increasing Richardson number. Similarly, the inclination angle of flow structures in stratified shear flow decrease with
increasing Richardson number and are dependent on the growth rate of kinetic energy. For rotating shear flows, nine cases
are considered: turbulent shear flow without rotation, with moderate rotation, and with strong rotation, where the rotation
configuration is either parallel or antiparallel. The Coriolis parameter to shear rate ratio f /S is varied from ?10 to 10. Positive
values of f/S correspond to an anti-parallel configuration, while negative values correspond to a parallel configuration between
the system rotation and the mean flow vorticity. Strong rotation results in strong decay of the turbulent kinetic energy. The
inclination angle is observed to reach a maximum value in the anti-parallel configuration with moderate rotation with f/S
= +05 and to be reduced in the parallel configuration with moderate rotation. The strongly rotating cases result in smaller
inclination angles, which are almost independent of the flow configuration. Therefore, the inclination angle of flow structures
appears to be directly related to the dynamics of the flow.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
More than a Standard: Your Children’s Education
Effect of Phytoplankton Growth Phase on Delayed Settling Behavior of Marine Snow
Aggregates
KAREN CLARK and Kathryn Statler
Through an analysis of the National and California History Standards, a historical debate can be identified. One side argues
for explicit standards that emphasize specific details of history - which often by unsurprising happenstance are white-centric,
while another side explores the possibilities of broader standards with a multicultural dimension. This debate has barred the
creation of national standards and left education standards in the hands of the states. The differences in standards from state
to state creates inequalities in content. Additionally, standards in education have faced scrutiny because they are often thought
of as goals instead of standards. Standards should be considered the minimum a student is expected to learn, and teachers
should ultimately be teaching beyond the standards and incorporating equity of different races, cultures, and sexes whenever
possible. Thus, broadened national standards to guide state standard decision making should be created. Also included in
the National Standards should be an instructional standard, leaving the balance of equity within a classroom in the hands of
teachers. One way for teachers to move from standards to a larger equity of experiences is by utilizing the varying backgrounds
of students within each classroom.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Auditor’s Going Concern Opinion: Consequences, Accuracy, and Outcomes
KATE GARDNER and Mary Durkin
The going concern opinion is an explanatory paragraph added to the end of an auditor’s opinion on the financial statements
if the auditors believe there is a substantial doubt the company will continue as a going concern for the next twelve months.
There are advantages to the going concern opinion, such as an increase in investor knowledge, but also disadvantages, such as
causing issues acquiring new debt, which can cause a drop in the stock price and change how the company is valued. These
consequences can lead to the company filing for bankruptcy, often giving the going concern opinion the reputation of the
self-fulfilling prophecy. This project reviews previous research performed around these consequences. These consequences can
be an issue for the company especially if the auditor gives a misclassification. Auditor accuracy has been a source of concern
because auditors often misclassify companies through a type-one error of issuing a going concern opinion but the company
does not file for bankruptcy. This project looks at the accuracy of public companies that recently received a going concern
opinion and follows their eventual outcomes: bankruptcy, continuance of operations, or merger/acquisition.
45
Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
KYLE PROCTOR and Jennifer Prairie
Marine-snow aggregates, collections of organic material and marine detritus, play a fundamental role in the marine carbon
cycle. Previous studies have shown that marine-snow aggregates will significantly decrease their settling velocity when passing
through sharp density transitions within the ocean, a phenomenon defined as delayed settling. Given the importance of
aggregate settling to carbon export, these small-scale changes in aggregate settling dynamics may have significant impacts
on the efficiency of the biological pump. However, there is still a lack of knowledge about how different physical properties
of aggregates can affect this delayed settling. In this study, we investigated the effect of phytoplankton growth phase on
delayed settling behavior. Using phytoplankton cultures stopped at distinct growth phases, we formed aggregates in a
laboratory environment. We then observed individual aggregates as they settled through a stratified water column. A thorough
understanding of the impact of phytoplankton growth phase on the delayed settling behavior of marine-snow will offer insight
into the way phytoplankton growth phase may influence the efficiency of the biological pump, carbon flux, and the carbon
cycle as a whole.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Evaluating the Hand Morphology of Homo naledi in the Context of Evolution and
Precision Grip
LAURA LUCERO and Jennifer Parkinson
The large assemblage of specimens from the discovery of Homo naledi in 2015 has led to new inferences about the beginnings
of the genus Homo. Due to the location of the discovery, however, the temporal placement of these fossils has remained
unanswered. In this research, we examine the morphology of a nearly complete right hand belonging to Homo naledi in order
to determine grip capabilities, explore its possible relationship with tool use and manufacture, and help better position this
species within the hominin evolutionary tree. Our sample consists of nine different species of hominins and two species of
great apes, which are from published literature, and 3D printed casts of the Homo naledi fossils. We used these specimens to
analyze the hand morphology of these species, and we determined the presence and absence of eight derived traits found in
Homo sapiens, which are evolutionarily significant. We also took measurements of thumb and finger length for biomechanical
analysis in relation to grip capabilities and tool use. The result will be the production of a phylogenetic tree using a parsimony
analysis in the program Mesquite and inferences about the biomechanical capabilities of Homo naledi and the cultural
development of tool manufacture.
Deterministic Pre-Conditions in International Trade Agreements
KATIE QUINN and Alyson Ma
This research paper seeks to demonstrate under which precursory conditions trade liberalization is successful by specifically
examining the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The
empirical methodology will consist of panel series data for Canada, the United States, and Mexico spanning from 1985 to
2015. Using the logit model, the right-hand regressors will produce respective probabilities for the dummy y-variable, a net
increase of Gross National Income. It is the working hypothesis that free trade agreements themselves have a less significant
role than deterministic pre-conditions, namely the exchange rates and level of development of the countries entering into said
agreements.
16 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
/ Undergraduate Research Conference
u n i v e r s i t y o f s a n d i e g O
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UC Forums
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Assimilation In America: From Manifest Destiny To Standing Rock
Empowering the Other Half: Gender Equity and Economic Growth in Developing
Nations
LAUREN CHARBONNEAU and Atreyee Phukan
The “new world” was conceptualized as a blank slate to create new beginnings for the European immigrants of the “old world”
without recognizing that America already had a pre-existing history, culture, and society. With the colonization of the New
World, Europeans believed it was their divine right to expand west and fulfill their belief of Manifest Destiny. By the late 1800’s
through the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, colonists took the land for themselves, while also pushing their lifestyle, values, and
beliefs onto the first inhabitants of the land. Native Americans were forced to assimilate to European customs and eventually,
“Americanize” themselves. In my project, I use art and literature as the lenses through which I evaluate why Manifest Destiny
was able to convince people to colonize as they expanded the West. I also analyze Native American mythology that reflect the
life-long effects their communities continue to live with today. Traces of Manifest Destiny can be seen in the Standing Rock
protest movement. Native Americans were once relocated onto unwanted lands (e.g. reservations), and now they are being
asked to allow major corporations to make decisions about their land and livelihood.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
MARIA DIMACHKIE and Alyson Ma
This research investigates the impact of gender equity on economic growth in developing nations. More specifically, this study
will look at how the United Nation’s implementation of Millennium Development goals, particularly those of “promoting
gender equality and empowering women” and “improving maternal health,” have contributed to economic progress in
developing nations. Using regression analysis, data from the time span of 2000-2015 surrounding various female health and
education indicators in developing nations is evaluated in order to explore the instrumental economic benefits of addressing
gender disparities and to isolate the influence of the UN’s Millennium Development Goal efforts. This study will expand on
existing literature through its use of updated data, utilization of the millennium development goal indicators as a framework
for measuring gender-equity, and the inclusion of both education and health variables. Beyond merely a method to evaluate
the impact of UN efforts, establishing the relationship between gender equity and GDP growth will serve a greater purpose of
informing future policy makers and allowing for more efficient, effective development policies to be implemented.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
SDG&E Nano-Grid
SARAH ADAMS, MACKLIN GATHERS, EMMANUEL GOMEZ, Kahveh Atef , Michael Turner, Kathleen Kramer, and
James Gilb
This system will provide renewable power to users who live in areas where connecting to a major power grid is problematic.
The goal of this project is to create an isolated nano-grid system which generates enough renewable energy to provide 400
Watts of power. Current nano-grid systems do not offer customers the ability to customize their power needs. A system will be
created so that the user can personalize their system’s settings and improve the effectiveness of the overall power distribution.
The system will have the ability to dynamically charge and produce 400 W of power to a load for at least two hours. The
system is broken into four subassemblies: the energy generation system, the energy storage system, the thermal management
system, and the system controller. An Arduino system controller has been chosen to tie all of the internal components together
and monitor all of the nano-grid components at one time and ensure proper functionality of the system as a whole. Currently,
research for this system has been completed and a functioning subsystem has been developed. This subsystem can correctly
notify the thermal management system as well as offer a brief idea of how the user can configure their system. The integration
of all the other three subsystems is currently in progress.
55
Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Examining the Neuronal Dopaminergic Pathway Underlying Sleep Behavior and
Related Dopamine Sleep Disorders
MARY BETH PUTZ, Victoria Coleman and Divya Sitaraman
The human brain is an extremely complex organ with approximately 100 billion different neurons that are constantly
sending and receiving messages. These messages are sent using the chemical messengers of the brain: neurotransmitters
and neuromodulators. The mechanisms of neural control of sleep are substantially conserved across species. Evidence from
multiple animal models including flies, zebrafish, and mice shows that the arousal, or wake phase, is regulated by conserved
neuromodulators such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. Since these neurotransmitter systems are distributed
throughout the brain and sub-serve many functions in addition to sleep, the precise circuit mechanisms by which these
neurotransmitters regulate sleep remain unknown in any organism. Because of their genetic tractability and mechanistic
similarity of sleep to humans, we used Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) to study sleep behavior. Our data show that
dopamine neurons are critical in controlling sleep behavior and that the modification of neurons expressing the dopamine
receptor leads to sleep deficits. In addition to analyzing these experimental data, we will also examine the current research
regarding established sleep disorders that have a strong dopamine component.
Analyzing Meiofauna Abundance and Distribution in Mission Bay, CA
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
MADISON LANGE and Nathalie Reyns
The Influence of Economic Factors on U.S. Home Prices
This study done on Mission Bay in San Diego, California serves as a baseline for future studies in order to have a long-term
series to compare with new data collection. The general questions we will try to answer are: what are the major organisms
found around various parts of Mission Bay; what is the variability of biological diversity between front, middle, and back
bay; and what major conclusions can be drawn from the overall data set. My hypothesis is that meiofaunal diversity and
abundance will be higher away from the freshwater inputs. Previous studies have been done at fewer sites and have collected
less extensive data compared to what our class will be collecting and thus creating a major problem of extreme variability
throughout the data. Therefore, this study is important in analyzing the overall meiofaunal diversity throughout Mission Bay.
NICHOLAS DEIERLEIN and Alyson Ma
18 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
/ Undergraduate Research Conference
The last global financial crisis began with the plight of subprime mortgages here in the United States. This research involves
examining what factors affect the value of the housing market. The goal is to identify fundamental economic variables that
explain movements in home prices across all 50 states.
u n i v e r s i t y o f s a n d i e g O
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Mathigami Exploration with Middle and High School Students
Synthesis and Evaluation of Peptides for RNA World Hypothesis
PAINE HARRIS and ASHLEY MENDES and Perla Myers
MICAELLA JORGE and RAJ PATEL and Joan Schellinger
In the summer of 2016, we explored the mathematics in origami, which led to unexpected discoveries and new artistic
creations. We used insights from our experiments to develop and lead inquiry-based, mathematics learning activities for
middle and high school students at a summer Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Mathematics (STEAM) Academy
hosted at USD. In our presentation, we will share our experiences and findings.
The RNA world hypothesis describes how ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules were present at the start of life and represented
a precursor for all life on Earth today. The hypothesis holds that the RNA world on early Earth later evolved into our current
DNA, RNA, and protein world. To study this, laboratories attempt to recreate and investigate RNA world organisms which
includes investigating ribozymes (catalytic RNA molecules). Studies have shown that amino acids and peptides also likely
existed during the emergence of the RNA world because they are easier to generate by prebiotically plausible reactions than
nucleotides. The question we want to answer is: can peptides help in the function of ribozymes? Our research focuses on
the synthesis, purification, characterization, and evaluation of twenty different peptides containing both naturally-occurring
and prebiotically-plausible amino acids. In this report, we focus on the successful synthesis and characterization of ten
peptides consisting of biological amino acids. The synthesis is accomplished via conventional Fmoc-tBu orthogonal protection
strategy using an automated microwave-assisted peptide synthesizer and purified by C-18 reverse-phase high-pressure liquid
chromatography. Peptide structure is confirmed by mass spectrometry. The synthesized peptides will be co-incubated with
ribozymes using in-vitro selection assays to identify ribozymes that recruit specific peptides from a pool of peptides. Circular
dichroism spectroscopy will also be used to study the potential of the peptides to form secondary structures. This research has
the potential to gain a closer look at what a prebiotic world and an RNA world organism would have looked like.
65
Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Christianity and Climate Change
PARKER KING and Alyson Ma
This project argues that urban American Christians, as a majority white and “first world” population, should not use their
privilege to be indifferent to both climate change and its effects on the lives of the less fortunate. Privileged White American
Christians need to have a stronger understanding of the implications involved with climate change and their role in speeding
up the ramifications that disproportionally affect the same groups their doctrine teaches them to care for. Why is it so difficult
for scientists and Christians to agree on climate change as one of the biggest threats to 21st century life especially as it is felt
most by marginalized groups? Although scientists claim Christians deny climate change, there are some who passionately care
and believe in it but paradoxically choose to ignore it. Christians ignore climate change because of their religious perspective,
such as anticipating the end of the world with Jesus’ second coming, making climate change a symbol. When viewing it as
a symbol, hundred-year floods, increasing heat and earthquakes, and other strange weather patterns are used as parts of
a checklist for the second coming rather than as human-induced global problems. Within the evangelical denomination,
for instance, there is a belief in an end to the world, where the earth is reborn through destruction. With this in mind, the
physical environment is unimportant, making any talk about climate change white noise.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
PITCHAPOR JIARAVANON Leo Chiu-Leung, Adrian Chan, Paul Hodgson and Michel Boudrias
Coral reef fisheries provide an important source of food and livelihood for many communities in Malaysia. However,
overfishing and destructive fishing practices have caused major degradation of delicate reef ecosystems. The tropical reefs
in Malaysia are heavily influenced by the widespread use of illegal dynamite fishing, which is considered to be the most
destructive impact on coral reefs. Since blasts do not discriminate species, mortality of non-target species, including corals
and other invertebrates, are high. The objective of this study was to analyze the impacts of blast fishing on fish community
structures in Sabah, Malaysia. To conduct this study, blast detectors were installed around various islands in Malaysia to record
the frequency, magnitude and time of blasting incidences within a 10-kilometer radius. Underwater videography transects
were recorded at each study site to conduct fish surveys to analyze the abundance of small, medium, and large fish. Findings
in this study could be used in management programs to determine how fish communities in various areas are affected by blast
fishing and identify potential areas that need to be addressed.
20 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
/ Undergraduate Research Conference
71
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
The U.S. Dollar: Building or Breaking The BRICs?
SACHI PAREKH and Alyson Ma
Historically, stronger growth in developed countries like the U.S. is beneficial to the global economy, especially on emerging
markets. However, a persistently strong dollar can have negative spillover effects on emerging markets, particularly those that
depend on trade relations with the U.S. This research project aims to show the negative impact of an appreciating dollar on
the growth of four key emerging markets from 1993-2016: Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). A strong dollar reduces
commodity prices, which, in turn, decreases the real income of net commodity exporters. Loss in real income further leads to
decreased demand and decelerates growth rates. The BRICs are all net commodity exporters of either raw materials or finished
goods. Another factor affecting BRIC growth rates is the increasing value of their dollar-denominated debt. An increase in the
U.S. real interest rate increases financing costs for the BRICs, mitigating their growth. With the help of a paneled regression
model, the study will show the negative effects of an appreciating U.S. real effective exchange rate and real interest rate on
the real GDP growth rates of BRIC. The results, if statistically significant and conclusive, will shed light on the strength of
economic policy and reform in the BRIC countries. Currently, they account for 30% of global GDP and thus, it is imperative
for them to continuously grow.
u n i v e r s i t y o f s a n d i e g O
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UC Forums
Bending Iron Crosses Into Swastikas: The Damage Caused by Forcing Perceptions of
WWII Germany Onto WWI German Soldiers
Sizzling and Shivering in Shiley and Serra
SAMANTHA DEDDEH and Kathryn Statler
The World Wars are two highly complex time periods that are still prominent in historical memory. Each nation’s soldiers
had diverse experiences in both wars. However, after World War II, there was a change in perceptions concerning Germany
in WWI. WWI was originally seen as a pointless bloodbath where fault, if any, belonged to all nations involved. After WWII,
some scholars equated WWI to WWII when regarding Germany, claiming that the Germans had the same goals and conduct
in both wars. Thus, the Nazi brutality was transferred onto the WWI German soldiers, many of whom had, like several Allied
soldiers, simply been young men who believed they were defending their country. This change represents a sustainment of the
World Wars memory narrative, which claims Germans have an inherent brutality and cruelty that caused both World Wars
and the Holocaust. This paper will highlight the German war experience, particularly through analyzing ordinary soldiers’
memoirs and diaries. Equating WWI and WWII Germany overlooks the struggles these soldiers faced, and cruelly profiles the
Germans as inherently prone to evil. Many regular WWI German soldiers faced the same hardships and disillusions as Allied
soldiers and should not have their memory blackened by the Nazis’ horrific actions.
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
TAYLOR LEDANG, NICHOLAS WAHL, SARINA HAGHIGHAT, Stefano Monzon, Lauren Roberts, Gracyn Otten, John
Brady,
Christelle Matsuda, Timothy Holdsworth, Noah Egger , Justin Von Gortler, Laura Cilingiri Molin, and Jane Friedman
Often times temperatures inside of USD classrooms are drastically different from outside temperatures, causing discomfort
and restricting learning. Inside temperatures should depend on weather conditions and provide a comfortable learning
environment. We tried to collect data throughout the day on student comfort levels in classrooms and compared it to outside
weather conditions and clothing choices. We found USD students’ clothing choices often represented the frigid temperatures
inside rather than the real outside weather conditions.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Analyzing Differentiation in Phosphorylation in Old and Young Drosophila
melanogaster
VERONICA VERPLANCKEN and Adam Haberman
This study researches daylight savings time and the impact it has on labor productivity. States within the United States have
the option of exercising daylight savings or not. Many states choose to participate due to the thought of energy comservation.
However, this concept of time change is something everyone knows yet people do not prepare for sleeping early for that hour
loss. From this arises the question of what kind of effect is occurring on labor productivity?
Aging is a process that can cause negative effects on living systems. Past research has shown that aging is a controlled process
that involves the regulation of proteins. One type of modification strategy is phosphorylation. Certain proteins will be
differently phosphorylated (i.e. phosphorylated when young but not when old or vice versa), and some of these alternatively
phosphorylated proteins may affect phenotypes in a detrimental manner. This is tested by dissecting one-day-old or 5-weekold Drosophila melanogaster heads. 2G-PAGE is used to separate phosphorylated protein samples. Protein samples are run in
an LTQ Mass Spectrometer for identification. 2D-PAGE analysis reveals that phosphorylation levels are higher in old flies. The
identity of these phosphorylated proteins still remains unclear. Further identification of these phosphorylated proteins is an
essential part of understanding aging and treating age-related diseases.
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UC Forums
84
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Analysis of Sodium Hydrogen Exchanger 1 (NHE1) Stimulation By Means of PYK
A College Education May Eventually Be Worthless
SHANE DAVIS and Joseph Provost
WADE BENNETT and Alyson Ma
Cancer incidence and mortality statistics report that lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in 2016. Nonsmall cell lung cancer is an aggressive malignancy, is insensitive to many forms of chemotherapy, and accounts for nearly
1/3rd of all cancer deaths. In order for carcinoma to continuously proliferate, the cells must be regulated to counteract
intensified intracellular proton concentration. Mammalian cells express a ubiquitous membrane protein called the SodiumHydrogen Exchanger (NHE1). NHE1 promotes cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. NHE1 is not an
autonomous mechanism; it must be activated by the phosphorylation of various protein kinases upstream of the membrane
protein. Although the impact of a number of protein kinases that phosphorylate NHE1 is unclear, the phosphorylation affects
NHE1 protein kinetics. These apparent protein kinases are produced by multiple cell signaling pathways that are initiated by
agonists. An agonist is a chemical substance that combines with a cell receptor and causes a reaction to create an active site. I
am researching to determine if LPA as an agonist activates the proline rich kinase (PYK). PYK is a protein kinase with a serine/
threonine consensus sequence. If identified as active, we would expect to find a serine/threonine consensus sequence in the
c-terminus of NHE1, where NHE1 is phosphorylated. If the protein kinase is shown to phosphorylate NHE1, we will be able
to detect a source for the healthy progression of lung carcinoma. Our hypothesis is that PYK as a protein kinase affects the
stimulation of NHE1 by affecting protein kinetics.
Given the rising cost of college tuition in the United States, the growing problem of student loan debt, lower-than-expected
post-graduation salaries, and no change in median household income over the last 18 years, obtaining a college degree may
not be a worthwhile investment for many students in the coming years.
Daylight Savings and the Impact on Labor Productivity
SELENA GONZALEZ and Alyson Ma
22 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
/ Undergraduate Research Conference
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91
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
KickForce Martial Arts iOS Application
An Assessment of Sponge Coverage and the Abundance of Spongivorous Fishes on
the Reefs of South Caicos
LILY HOFFMAN and Saturnino Garcia
KickForce is a traditional martial arts gym in San Diego. The KickForce app will serve as a resource for students to
complement their training done in the gym. The app will store videos of basic techniques, forms, weapons trainings, selfdefense techniques, acrobatic martial arts moves, and other workout routines. The students will have access to training
material from their iOS device to be able train on their own and reflect on their progress, with content tailored to their
belt rank and training goals. While there are a wide variety of martial arts training resources freely available, the videos
presented by the app will be specifically designed to complement the KickForce curriculum. The app will also foster a sense
of community by providing each student with a personal profile where they can share content and communicate with other
KickForce members.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Analyzing the Social Change Model in the Context of Women’s Rights to Education
ABBEY SOLNET and Kenneth Bates
For my Honors Senior Thesis, I am analyzing a leadership theory called the Social Change Model. This model was created
by Susan Komives, and consists of the “7 Cs” of leadership. These Cs are divided into Individual (consciousness of self,
congruence, commitment), Group (collaboration, common purpose, controversy with civility), and Societal/Community
(citizenship) values, and are important in creating positive social change. I will be analyzing and critiquing the Social Change
Model, and applying it to a real-life scenario: the human right to education. This human right is currently being violated in
various areas around the world, and since human rights are intersectional, it is important to look at specific populations who
are marginalized- specifically women. I will do a case study to see how the Social Change Model applies to Malala Yousafzai
and Emma Watson and their work to advocate for women’s rights to education. I will offer insights into how they can improve
their work, as well as critiques on the limitations of the Social Change Model. I will conduct primary research within the
University of San Diego community by hosting a screening of the film “He Named Me Malala” and do surveys and discussions
to see if people can understand the Social Change Model in the context of this film. Overall the goal of the research is to better
understand the Social Change Model for leadership and how it can be used to create social change for education on both a
local and global level.
Coral reef ecosystems are vitally important to maintaining fisheries and supporting many tourism attractions of the Turks
and Caicos Islands. Environmental resilience to stressors relies on the existence of healthy, biodiverse ecosystems. While
sponges are crucial members of benthic food webs, coral to sponge dominance phase shifts have been observed in some areas,
which threaten biodiversity by making habitats more susceptible to natural and anthropogenic impacts. This study examines
geographical, seasonal, and depth patterns of sponge benthic coverage off of the Southern coast of South Caicos and relates
sponge cover to the abundance of spongivorous fish species, which include Pomacanthus arcuatus, Pomacanthus paru,
Holocanthus tricolor, and Cantherhines macrocerus. A positive relationship was found between mean percent sponge cover
and depth, and a significant positive correlation was found between sponge cover and spongivorous fish presence.
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Utility and Examination of Boronate Esters
TAYLOR THANE, Alexis Ogtong, Carl Ferber and Timothy Clark
Diboration has proven to be an efficient way of incorporating boron into molecules. New reactions that insert a carboncontaining molecule into a carbon-boron bond of these diboration products (homologation) will be described. By choosing
effective protecting groups the homologating step is improved. The addition of Lewis acids has also been shown to improve
the homologation.
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Internship at the Office of Sustainability
BRIDGETTE REDDINGTON and Sarah Gray
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UC Forums
JEHARRAH PEARL and Saturnino Garcia
This project probes the inherent limitations of perception in order to formulate an expanded understanding of consciousness,
one which transcends behavior and neurological process. Neurological data probing the systems of consciousness is
fundamentally rooted in perception. Computer programmed visualizations and light prism studies operate as the primary
methodology to analyze a series of enigmatic questions. These visual studies will inform the larger immersive installation
which utilizes sound. Using an embedded system these components will be integrated and interfaced with an API application
that retrieves heart rate data using this information to influence the movement of the prisms and installation structures.
By programming a collective visual-audio installation based upon the earlier visual studies, the installation operates as a
constructed space aimed to displace awareness. The final space will be rendered as time base sequence in order to map
correlations and possible trends at a given point and time during the exhibition. By studying physiological connections as well
as experiential accounts we can critique the fundamental fallacies of human perception, thus, disrupting prior understanding
regarding the nature of reality.
24 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
KATHRYN JACOBUS, Kalla Fleger, Matt Speegle, Erin Lyons, Amanda Paskavitz, Heidi Hertler, Lily Zhao, Claire
Gonzales, Eva Ramey, Chris Casaclang, Clarence Stringer and Steven Searcy
/ Undergraduate Research Conference
I was the marketing intern for the USD Office of Sustainability for the spring semester 2017. The mission of the Office of
Sustainability is to promote sustainable initiatives throughout USD’s campus through programming and outreach to both
the USD and local communities. My findings have included analyzing the ways students react to social media outreach
about sustainability and the parts of sustainability that are most interesting to students. I have found that students are most
interested in learning about ways they can live a more sustainable lifestyle on campus. I have also found that sustainability
on college campuses is evolving and progressing, especially in California. I have learned about the importance of marketing
sustainability properly and how to market events so that people will attend. My internship experience has taught me the
importance of media outreach to increase participation in, and knowledge of, sustainable activities on campus. It has
also supported my academic studies because it has allowed me to spend time researching sustainability issues and career
opportunities to share with others through media.
u n i v e r s i t y o f s a n d i e g O
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Molecular Engineering using Dipyrromethene Ligands
Evaluation of Efficiency for an ARM-based Beowulf Cluster versus Traditional
Desktop Computing Utilizing High PerformanceComputing
QUAN LAURA LE, HOLLY CUNNINGHAM and Mitchell Malachowski
Our interest is in designing organic molecules with particular shapes. In order to do this, we have synthesized rigid organic
molecules based on the various organic units, including benzenes and biphenyls. These organic molecules were designed to
have a shape that will lead to a predictable shape or cavity when complexed to metal ions. After preparation of the organic
molecules, they were bound to metal ions such as cobalt, ruthenium, and copper. The complexes were characterized by
a combination of elemental analysis, UV-vis spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography. From these results, we were able to
determine whether our basic premise about building particular shapes into the ligand is transferred to the metal complexes.
We will highlight our successes using a collection of dipyrromethene ligands.
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Dawncrest Procedural Gaming
CASEY OLIVETTE PETER GUSTAFSON DANIEL MYERS MICHAEL FRANKLIN and Scott Lundergan
Dawncrest is a prototype for a fully-immersive role-playing game, designed using the Unity game engine. Dawncrest was
created in order to explore the possibilities in procedural generation of game content. Almost everything in the game is
generated only after you have begun playing. Dawncrest’s 3D world has a procedurally generated terrain, with procedurally
generated music, items, and AI elements that interact with the player. Our objective is for every player to have a unique
experience.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
USD’s 2017 Mini-Baja
MASON POWERS, MICHAEL POWER, Jessica Koch, Adam Dang, Austin Perri, Jasmine Yang, Duy Ngo, Elliot
Kadota, Jack Li, Jessica Lowery, Joe Losecar, Rachel Gledhill, Valeria Estrada, Soud Alenazi and Daniel Codd
For the second year, the University of San Diego will compete in the Mini Baja Collegiate Design Series, hosted by the Society
of Automotive Engineers (SAE.) University students design, engineer, build, and test a single seat off-road vehicle. There are
3 sanctioned events each year, each in different parts of the United States. Our team, Torero Racing, will be competing in
Gorman, California, from April 27th to the 30th. Over 100 teams will attend and will be judged on the ability to meet various
design specifications. There are multiple events to test the vehicles, including maneuverability, hill climb, acceleration, and
endurance. Judges will also rate the teams on their vehicle designs and manufacturing costs. Last year was Torero Racing’s
first time competing and placed 30th overall out of 104 teams. This year we aim to surpass this placing. Completing this
project will include computer-aided design; computer-aided manufacturing, finite element analysis, manufacturing, system
integration, testing and development, and dynamic performance. After in-depth research and analysis of various solutions,
our team has decided on designs for each subsystem that will excel in performance and reliability. The Inner Chassis Team
has goals of improving on Torero Racing’s 2016 frame design by removing excess weight, strengthening integral parts, and
improving ease of manufacturability. The Front Suspension Team will implement a dual A-arm design to optimize key
characteristics such as roll center, shock placement, camber gain, kingpin angle, and scrub radius. The Rear Suspension Team
will utilize a 3-link trailing arm independent suspension to keep weight at a minimum while maintaining enough strength
to achieve the maximum amount of travel and damping from the shock absorbers. The Drivetrain Team has chosen to use
a continuously variable drive transmission in combination with the Dana H-12 FNR limited slip differential to transmit the
engine’s power to the wheels.
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NICHOLAS ADDIEGO, Shannon Bailey, David Mayhew, and Frank Jacobitz
The goal of this project is to develop and maintain a Beowulf cluster of Odroid single board computers in order to examine
and utilize their resultant computational capacity. In addition, the total power consumption of cluster will be monitored and
analyzed over varying computational loads. This presentation highlights these power consumption values and compares
them with the power required to complete identical calculations with a desktop computer. This project has required the
development of a network environment in which these single board computers can assign and distribute data, as well as the
design of an assembly to house all relevant equipment. The Odroid computers use the Ubuntu-Linux operating system and
the Open-MPI software for the communication between nodes via network connections. Through the use of Open-MPI, a
previously distinguished ?head node? divides large data sets and delegates other node computers? unique sections of each set.
Results of each calculation are then returned to the head node to be analyzed by the operator. The advantage of using a set of
computers in this configuration is that it helps to greatly reduce the time required to process large numerical loads by dividing
them among many CPUs.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Examining First-Year Engineering Students’ Service-Learning Experiences
AVA BELLIZZI and Susan Lord
While technical training and design projects are staples in engineering curricula, the incorporation of service-learning into
engineering education has been found to be beneficial to students’ professional development. This study examined the
experiences of four first-year Honors engineering students. Students prepared presentations and corresponding hands-on
activities to expose teenagers at an afterschool program at a local teen center to engineering design. Evaluations of these
student-presenters’ engineering background, project goals, and extent of project preparation were conducted prior to and
following their presentation of these mandatory service-learning projects by way of anonymous surveys. Data from these
surveys was analyzed to investigate students’ experiences with particular attention to variation by gender and previous
engineering experience. According to their responses, participants found this experience to be valuable to their engineering
education, and they reported interest in engaging in future service-learning projects. Participating females reported at least one
engineering-related pre-collegiate experience, but males did not. Additionally, female participants stated that they valued the
emphasis service-learning places on community engagement and effective communication, while males cited the sharing of
ideas to solve problems as the highlight of their experience. A unique aspect of this research was that the primary investigator
was one of the engineering student participants.
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Smart Rehabilitation Insole with Haptic Feedback and Smartphone Connectivity
SARAH KAPPLE, TANNER HENRY, MICHAEL THILENIUS, MARK SASAKI, James Gilb, Tom Lupfer, John Fox, Rod
Milan and Orlando Crespo and Kathleen Kramer
The smart rehabilitation insole is a device designed to assist in the walking rehabilitation of stroke victims. To do this, the
system utilizes an array of force sensors to measure weight distributions and a haptic device to provide feedback. The unit
wirelessly connects to a smartphone in order to provide additional feedback to the user. This system intends to give stroke
patients the opportunity for at-home physical therapy in addition to a more robust treatment with their physical therapist.
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Day One, Session II, Interactive Exhibits
Riot Grrrl and the (R)Evolution of Feminism
KATELYN JOHNSON and Cessily Heisser
Riot Grrrl was a movement within the American and British punk scene from 1989 to 1996. Originating amongst students
at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, the movement initially formed to combat sexism in punk. What began
as an inclusion effort for girls at punk shows, eventually became a music subgenre, a zine network, a collection of support
groups, and a political cause. This research focuses on Riot Grrrl from 1989 to 1996 and its lasting impact on global feminism.
To quote Bikini Kill’s song, “Double Dare Ya”, the individuals associated with the movement were hoping for a “Revolution,
girl-style, now.”[1] However, by 1996 riot grrrls abandoned the cause because sexism persisted, and because the media
had commodified their original message. Although many have viewed Riot Grrrl as a failed revolution, this research takes
the stance that it was not a failure, that it facilitated the evolution of feminism from Third to Fourth Wave. The first section
organizes an ideological timeline of the four waves of feminism, highlighting key ideologies, literatures, and music that
contributed to the formation of Riot Grrrl. The next section examines the Riot Grrrl era and its cohesion with Third Wave
feminism. The last sections will demonstrate how, although the movement ended, elements of Riot Grrrl have evolved into a
Fourth Wave of feminism today.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
The Games of Gentrification
MICHAEL GIRARD and Cid Martinez
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
VA/Exhibit Hall
JEHARRAH PEARL and Saturnino Garcia
This project probes the inherent limitations of perception in order to formulate an expanded understanding of consciousness,
one which transcends behavior and neurological process. Neurological data probing the systems of consciousness is
fundamentally rooted in perception. Computer programmed visualizations and light prism studies operate as the primary
methodology to analyze a series of enigmatic questions. These visual studies will inform the larger immersive installation
which utilizes sound. Using an embedded system these components will be integrated and interfaced with an API application
that retrieves heart rate data using this information to influence the movement of the prisms and installation structures.
By programming a collective visual-audio installation based upon the earlier visual studies, the installation operates as a
constructed space aimed to displace awareness. The final space will be rendered as time base sequence in order to map
correlations and possible trends at a given point and time during the exhibition. By studying physiological connections as well
as experiential accounts we can critique the fundamental fallacies of human perception, thus, disrupting prior understanding
regarding the nature of reality.
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
La Gran Terraza Patio
The staff of The Alcala Review
The staff of The Alcala Review, USD’s student-run literary journal, will read selections from recent issues.
One viewpoint classically defines gentrification as a “process” whereby evolving organically to change depressed
neighborhoods into prosperous ones. Another perspective suggests that gentrification is engineered by the influences of
upwardly mobile professionals, whose agency creates a new form of gentry, whereby directing the course of potential change
for a blighted area. While these two views traditionally have acted separately, a new approach proposes that gentrification
involves the combined influences of upwardly mobile professionals, or “gentrifiers,” whose influence directs the socioeconomic process of restructuring depressed neighborhoods, often labeled simply as “gentrification.”
To better assess these vast concepts, the findings from this research will assess how the process of gentrification, and the
participating gentrifiers, have helped or hindered the neighborhoods of Ocean Beach in San Diego, Calif. After conducting
extensive field work, the researcher will attempt to determine whether Ocean Beach’s neighborhoods have received or
resisted the onset of gentrification. In doing so, this study will examine several questions in particular. To what extent has
gentrification inverted the historic sociocultural and economic structures of Ocean Beach? To what degrees has this change
affected the demography of Ocean Beach’s neighborhoods? Have the participating gentrifiers, who engineer the process of
gentrification, restructured the diversity of Ocean Beach to be perceived as social deviance?
The ultimate goal is to determine if the famed community cohesion of Ocean Beach still exists, or if it has become nearly
extinct, due to the outcomes resulting from, the games of gentrification.
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Day One, Session II, Poster Presentations
6
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
2
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Adaptation or Ancestral Trait?: Investigating Ionoregulatory Patterns of
Characiformes Native to the Rio Negro
The Role of the Medial Entorhinal Cortex in Temporal Aspects of Memory Processing
in Rats
The Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon River, is characterized by its ion-poor, acidic waters that pose physiological
challenges to its inhabitants. Previous research investigating the ionoregulatory patterns of two Characiformes, Congo tetras
(Phenacogrammus interruptus) and Black neon tetras (Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi), which are non-native to the Rio
Negro, have shown evidence of high-affinity, high-capacity transporters insensitive to low pH (Gonzalez et al.). We examined
the ionoregulatory characteristics of four species of Characiformes native to the Rio Negro (Penguin tetra [Thayeria boehlkei],
Rosy tetra [Hyphessobrycon rosaceus], Serpae tetra [Hyphessobrycon eques], and Emperor tetra [Nematobrycon palmeri])
to determine whether their ionoregulatory patterns are a unique adaptation to their inhabitance in the Rio Negro. These
Characiformes demonstrated high tolerance when exposed to low pH levels, down to pH 3.25, with minimal inhibition of
Na+ uptake. When exposed to the lowest pH, Penguin tetra notably showed an increase in uptake (Jin, pH 3.25 = 1275.7)
when compared to uptake levels at pH 7.5 (Jin,pH 7.5 = 790.5). Additionally, Na+ uptake kinetics performed on all species
established that these Characiformes show a high affinity (Km < 50 _mol/L) and high capacity for Na+ (large Jmax) even
in ion-poor waters. Our experimental data collected from the specified Characiform Rio Negro natives along with previous
research investigating non-natives, show evidence of analogous ionoregulatory patterns, suggesting that these characteristics
may be ancestral physiological traits rather than adaptations to the harsh conditions of the Rio Negro.
AMANDA CRADEUR, Margaret Guinnip and Richard Gonzalez
TEDDY FISHER, ALYSSA MORSE, ANGELA CAMACHO, Peter Breslin, Lindsay Benster and Jena Hales
The hippocampus is critically involved in the formation and maintenance of episodic memory, a specific kind of declarative
memory that has both spatial (“where”) and temporal (“when”) components. It is well established that the hippocampus is
necessary for the formation and maintenance of spatial processing and memory. The discovery of two classes of spatiallyselective cells, place cells in the hippocampus (O’Keefe and Dostrovsky, 1971) and grid cells in the adjacent medial
entorhinal cortex (MEC; Hafting et al., 2005), was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2014. The MEC provides projections to the
hippocampus and contributes to the normal function of hippocampal place cells (Steffenach, et al. 2005; Hales et al. 2014).
The hippocampus is also involved in temporal processing, containing “time cells” (MacDonald, 2011), and is important
for temporal aspects of memory (Fortin, 2002). Despite the attention paid to the role of the MEC in spatial processing and
memory, researchers have only begun to examine the temporal functions of the MEC. Recent studies have suggested that the
MEC may play a role in hippocampal-dependent temporal processing (Schlesinger et al., 2015), though its role in temporal
memory is unclear. Based on pilot data from our lab, we hypothesize that the MEC is critically involved in sequence learning,
a measure of temporal memory. Testing rats with MEC brain lesions on an object-sequence learning task, we will examine the
involvement of the MEC in temporal aspects of memory.
4
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
The Tudor Stage in a Digital Age
Instagram-Fit: A (Potentially) Positive Space for Women in Fitness
ALLIE ROSS and Bradley Bond
Media consistently presents women with an unrealistic expectation of what their bodies should look like. The “thin ideal,”
or the presentation of incredibly thin women as the ultimate beauty ideal has real, negative consequences to women’s selfesteem and body image, often in the form of eating disorders or other disordered behavior. Increasingly, fitness has become
an important part of the lives of many women; yet, the motivations for a woman to achieve fitness are often centered on
reasons that elevate beauty and sex appeal over health. This project examined the self-presentation of members of the women’s
fitness industry as presented on Instagram. The intention is to examine the sexual and objectifying content within the images,
commentary from both men and women, and overall self-presentation of the women behind these fitness accounts. Social
Comparison Theory was utilized to understand the way in which posters and commenters interact with each other over social
media and how the images can be viewed as meaningful to women. A content analysis of 30 of the most popular Instagram
female fitness accounts was conducted, taking ten images from each account and twenty comments from each image. Images
were attributed to either a professional, sponsored, or amateur account holder in order to examine differences between them.
Findings indicate that most images are at least mildly sexual in nature, and that degrading commentary, while not as prevalent
as positive encouragement, is frequent in the posts.
30 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
/ Undergraduate Research Conference
ALEXANDRA ANNEN, EMILY BEZOLD, CARA CARUCCI, YOUSIF HERMIZ, MAYA MCAULIFFE, ERIN MCDONALD,
KATHRYN MORTON, AMANDA PENDLETON, MARK SASAKI, CONNOR SULLIVAN and Ryan Scrimger and Paul
Evans
The Tudor Plays Project (TPP), which Maura Giles-Watson (English) launched at USD two years ago, is the first large-scale
long-term Digital Humanities (DH) project at USD. With the opening of the new Humanities Center and the DH Studio, the
project has grown tremendously in 2016-17. The mission of the TPP is the creation and dissemination of digital resources
for the study and performance of pre-Shakespearean English plays, including the drama of the circle of Thomas More. These
important plays are often neglected because no modern editions are available; over the next decade, the TPP will remedy that
situation by preparing them as publishing, teaching, and performance editions on the TPP pilot website, tudorplays.org. The
website will also include historical contextualizing materials, such as multimodal articles on Tudor household drama and on
the influence of humanist thought on Renaissance drama. The anonymous More Circle play Gentleness and Nobility is the
TPP’s current project and our pilot play. The research team has developed the first-ever modern English performance edition
of this play, and a new teaching edition of the play is in preparation. In 2017, the TPP team will also publish its findings from
the first-ever digital authorship-attribution study of the play in collaboration with TPP Technical Director Paul Evans. During
2016-17, under the leadership of TPP Artistic Director Ryan Scrimger (Theatre and Music), the team is also filming four scenes
from its new performance text of Gentleness and Nobility in a cast and crew comprised entirely of students and alumni with
faculty mentorship.
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10
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Queen Conch Orientation with Relation to the Current Direction in South Caicos,
Turks and Caicos Islands
An Examination of Coral Reef Restoration Practices in Bonaire and the Broader
Importance of Environmental Conservation
ANDREA MAST and Jennifer Prairie
BRENDAN SULLIVAN and Michel Boudrias
The queen conch, Strombus gigas, is an extremely important marine species in the Turks and Caicos Islands, specifically South
Caicos, for most of their economy relies on its harvest. The queen conch is a marine gastropod that inhabits sand and sea grass
planes on the Caicos Bank. Previous studies have shown that queen conch undergo mass migrations in which the individuals
are oriented in relation to the current (Stoner et al. 1994, Lipcius et al. 1988, Stoner et al. 1989). However, the individuals
not involved in the mass migrations are oriented randomly (Lipcius et al., 1988). This study aims to further understand the
orientation of non-migrating queen conch and determine whether this orientation is significantly correlated to the direction of
the current. The data will help shed light on conch orientation while not migrating and provide suggestions as to why queen
conch would orient themselves a certain way in relation to the current.
My senior seminar topic will focus on my internship with the Boston Sea Rovers during the summer of 2015. Their mission
statement is to advance the education, conservation, and exploration of the underwater world. I will discuss the importance
of such endeavors with a highlighted focus on the time I spent in Bonaire with the Coral Restoration Foundation. The
centerpiece of the poster will focus on the CRF initiatives and field world I engaged in, while also connecting such work to the
broader importance of restorative practices on reefs given their unprecedented ecological decline.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Learning Environment and High School Graduation Rates: What Really Goes Into
Canadian Education?
Examining Why Cell Phone Conversations May be More Distracting
CAITLIN FOOTE and Alyson Ma
ALEXIS NACHT, KEELEY COPELAND, Elle Johnsong, Daniel Kurzweil, Ashley Joshi, Arjun Majithia, Emily Lluch,
Elizabeth Bader and Veronica Galvan
The primary goal of this research is to determine what positively influences the high school graduation rate in Canada.
More specifically, this research is aimed at discovering if the learning environment adversely affects the rate of high school
graduation across all provinces and territories. Given that spending on education and the allocation of educational services
differs across provinces, the goal of this research is to determine which aspects of the learning environment are most effective
in contributing to graduation rates. If better learning environments are found to lead to greater high school graduation rates,
policy revisions could be made to allocate more money and resources to proven successful educational practices and/or to
conduct more research in aiming funding at areas that have not been further explored.
Overhearing a one-sided (cell phone) conversation while performing another task can impact a bystander’s attention and
memory. However, the amount of content that the one-sided conversation has may affect the extent to which bystanders are
affected. We are testing this hypothesis by examining participants’ performance on a verbal task while they overhear one of
several types of conversation. Conversations will vary in that they will be either a one-sided (cell phone) or a typical two-sided
conversation, and also whether or not one person will convey all the information. We expect that the one-sided conversation
with all pertinent information will not be distracting, while the one-sided conversation with missing information will be
distracting. We expect that both types of two-sided conversations will be less distracting. These results could be important
for office space productivity and other situations where paying attention to a task could be disrupted by surrounding
conversations.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
14
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Examining the Role of the Aaron Price Fellows Program in Building Social Capital for
Low-Income Students
The Sorting Hat Comes to USD II
While there are many contributing factors to a student’s educational success, social capital has been identified as one of the
key factors. Social capital can be defined as access to social networks, the resources those networks hold, and the ability to use
those resources for one’s benefit. It is important to note that the type of resources that are deemed as valuable and the access
a person has to those resources is framed within social hierarchies. This leaves low-income, particularly low-income minority
youth, at a disadvantage when it comes to accessing these critical resources of educational and social success. Fortunately,
social capital is not static and studies have shown that there are interventions, or support programs, that can help mitigate
low-income minority youths’ lack of social capital. These programs aim to provide additional resources and support in areas
linked to educational success, such as: academic support, community involvement, and access to college-oriented peers
and non-parental adult mentors. An example of these programs is the Aaron Price Fellows Program (APF). By examining
APF, specifically the resources they provide and the outcomes they produce, my research aims to determine whether these
interventions are helping low-income minority youth build social capital in order to identify effective models for intervention
programs.
CATHERINE ZUNIGA-MATA and Dennis Sisco-Taylor
RILEY EVANS, ASHLEY MENDES, CHAISE BROWN, WENXIN QIU, GRACYN OTTEN and Jane Friedman and Lynn
McGrath and Amanda Ruiz
“National studies have shown that students in Living Learning Communities demonstrate stronger academic achievement
and are more invested in and connected to the campus community” (USD LLC website). As students at USD, we would like
to support and help improve the placement of students into LLC’s that are in line with their interests. The USD faculty and
staff currently place incoming freshmen into first year preceptorial classes and Living Learning Communities (LLC’s) by hand.
The many constraints inherent in the placement process make placement by hand challenging and inefficient. We would like
to improve placement, making it more efficient and optimizing the number of students in one of their top three choices of
preceptorial classes. To approach this problem, we created a MATLAB script that sorts all students into their first preference,
and then iteratively switches students into a lower preference class to meet constraints such as class size. In preliminary trials,
our program increases the percentage of students in their first preference.
32 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
on communities near the foundation, but several programs extend well beyond their village. On site, over half of the land
is used for biodynamic gardening, a key focus of the foundation, followed by income-generating programs such as women’s
empowerment jewelry-making and the Eco-Cafe. Finally, we created a Story Map to share the information. This spatial data
can aid the foundation in future planning, fundraising, and outreach efforts.
Reproductive Cycles and Parasitism in the barnacle, Chthamalus spp
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Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
DANA FLERCHINGER and Nathalie Reyns
The examination of barnacles and their reproductive processes is important as barnacle larval transport has major implications
for settlement and transport processes common to many organisms in the rocky intertidal. The research objective of this
study is to determine the reproductive stages of barnacles as well as the prevalence of parasitism to provide information about
the seasonality and patterns of barnacle reproduction. We collected 100 barnacles in the rocky intertidal daily from June
to December 2016. Samples were brought back to the lab for dissection and examination under a microscope to determine
the reproductive state of each barnacle as well as the prevalence of parasitism among the samples. Information regarding
the reproductive stage and parasitism was then recorded in a spreadsheet and analyzed. The results of this study indicate
variability among the timing and frequency of barnacle reproduction. Results also showed a slight correlation with lunar cycles
and the percentage of barnacles in reproductive stages.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Trigger Words: How the Salience of Social Identities Affects Cognitive Dissonance in
Rhetorical Discourse Surrounding Gun Legislation
BROOKLYN DIPPO and Mary Brinson
While gun violence is a growing problem in the United States, legislation to fix it seems stagnant. Political conversations across
the aisle are becoming increasingly hostile and as issues become polarized there are fewer efforts to compromise. This research
seeks to identify the “trigger words” around the gun debate. By better understanding the effects of gun legislation rhetoric on
cognitive dissonance, we can reframe the debate in terms of neutral language and start to have a discussion. This research also
shows how social identities can affect consumption and processing of media. This study incorporates an online experimental
design in order to find support for these assumptions.
New-Age Thinking on Mathematical Design ? University of San Diego Department
of Mathematics
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Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
DANIELLE LATIMORE and Xiaoye Yang and Satyan Devadoss
The Justice and Mercy of God: Exodus Compared to Jesus
This undergraduate Applied Mathematics capstone project explores methods of data collection and feedback surveys, with
the larger aim of identifying key parameters for the redesign and construction of the Department of Mathematics space at
the University of San Diego. This endeavor involves distributing different platforms of surveys, as well as quantifying and
qualifying the program of existing spaces into an index of area, volume, correlations, light, and circulation, among others.
Our goals include building physical and digital models to represent the existing space and multiple new interpretations to
increase efficiency, enjoyment, and structure. Further, an added component of uniquely inventive mathematical thinking in
design will be explored by bringing a currently abstract concept to life ? that of a Mathematical Design Laboratory. This will be
a creative space intended to support and encourage the free methods of thinking, inventive tendencies, and research desires of
mathematics students at the University of San Diego.
HAYLEY BENSON and Rico Monge
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Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Mapping Sustainable Community Development: An Eco Endeavor in the
Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
ELIZABETH DENGENIS and Suzanne Walther
The modern humanitarian system developed in part due to the inability and/or unwillingness of states to fulfil their
responsibilities to protect and assist their citizens. Unlike governmental organizations, local community organizations rely on
their populations to participate in their recovery. Local NGOs have shown that improving trust and common understanding
creates the foundation for collective problem solving. This project highlights a local organization that is effectively aiding
communities in Nepal. The Kevin Rohan Memorial Eco Foundation (KRMEF) is a community-driven grassroots organization
that helps communities alleviate poverty by becoming self-sustaining. In this study, KRMEF serves as a case study on the
impact of a local non-governmental organization. This project’s objectives were to 1) map the spatial extent of their outreach
programs across Nepal and 2) quantify land use at their site, dedicated to these programs. To do so, we collected GPS data and
mapped the outreach programs in ArcGIS. Additionally, we obtained aerial imagery of the foundation using a Dji Quadcopter,
created a site model using Agisoft Photoscan software, and digitized the land-use in ArcGIS. The outreach is primarily centered
34 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
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Since the establishment of the early Christian Church, there has been debate surrounding the apparent differences in character
between God in the Old Testament compared to the New Testament, especially relating to judgment and compassion.
This argument has caused the Church to defend the orthodox belief regarding God’s character as unchanging, even across
testaments. This theological research study examines the Christian God’s characteristics of justice and mercy as they are
displayed in the book of Exodus compared to the person of Jesus in the New Testament. It provides a hermeneutical analysis
of God’s words and actions in the Moses narrative and Sinaitic Covenant, along with Jesus’ words and actions in the Gospels.
This study evaluates what connections and reconciliation, if any, may be found between the manifestations of God’s justice
and mercy in these particular areas of the Old and New Testaments. It exegetically examines the biblical texts in light of
their contemporary historical, grammatical, and religious context. Relevant commentaries from various biblical scholars are
also consulted for analysis. It is hypothesized that there is a strong congruence between God’s justice and mercy in Exodus
compared to Jesus’ in the Gospels. The analyses suggest that although the justice and mercy exhibited in Jesus’ life are not
identical to that of God in the Hebrew Bible, they are a continuation and completion of the Mosaic Law established in the
book of Exodus.
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UC Forums
Dopaminergic Control of Sleep and Feeding in Drosophila
MARGARET DRISCOLL, JADE BOVE, Austin Pavin and Divya Sitaraman
Neuromodulators such as dopamine (DA) and serotonin have long been implicated in innate and learned behaviors.
Widespread dopaminergic system manipulations depleting DA levels result in sleep regulation deficits in Drosophila
Melanogaster (the fruit fly). Further evidence suggests that the regulation of feeding is also adversely affected when DA levels
are diminished. The fly brain contains a total of 200 dopaminergic neurons, 130 of which innervate the mushroom body (MB).
The MB is an associative learning network important for decision making as well as for the control of sleep in Drosophila.
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Approximately 2,000 kenyon cells (KCs) make up the lobes of the MB and synapse onto MB output neurons (MBON) in
15 non-overlapping compartments. The 130 DANs project into these compartments, modulating the synaptic strength of
these connections. Activation of specific DANs has been demonstrated to significantly reduce sleep in Drosophila. It remains
unclear whether the observed sleep deficits are a cause of dopaminergic regulation of arousal or of a motivational behavior like
feeding. Using Drosophila as an experimental system, a comprehensive screen of all MB DANs and MBONs was conducted.
We analyzed specific subsets of DAN and ON clusters in order to elucidate dopamine’s role in the regulation of feeding and
motivational behaviors. The goal of these data is to explore a link between dopamine regulation of motivational behaviors and
their implications for sleep regulation.
33
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Characterization of the Polymeric Immunoglobulin Receptor in Leucoraja erinacea
JAMES RICKETTS and Valerie Hohman
The first line of defense against many types of pathogens (such as viruses, bacteria, or toxins) is the mucosal immune system,
which protects mucosal membranes lining the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and urogenital tracts. One common characteristic
of all vertebrate species is the presence of molecules that participate in adaptive immune response, such as antibodies, which
bind to pathogens to prevent infection. The function of the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor is to transfer these antibodies
through the epithelial cells, and then release them as a secretory antibodies in the mucosa. Cartilaginous fish have evidence
of antibodies in intestinal secretions, but not specifically the protein pIgR. We hypothesize pIgR is present in Leucoraja
erinacea, or the little skate, a cartilaginous fish. My project is to identify the DNA sequence coding for the pIgR gene in the
little skate. In order to obtain the sequence, I am using a technique called reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction,
which synthesizes a complementary DNA strand from messenger RNA. Through previous work in the Hohman lab, we have
determined the full length sequence to be 3.0 kilobases, while our putative sequence is only 1.5 kilobases. The information
gained from this project will provide essential information on the origins of mucosal immunity and may lead to improvements
in the creation of vaccines for fish, which could benefit fisheries and aquaculture whose aim is to raise and protect various fish
species.
35
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Socioeconomic Factors that Influence Health
JANEL KOZLOSKI and Alyson Ma
Through the course of this semester, I have been analyzing and gathering data based on the socioeconomic factors that
influence a person’s health. I estimated that negative socioeconomic factors will result in low levels of health. In my project,
I formed a regression model with health lifestyle behaviors and economic implements as my variables and concluded that
certain behaviors as well as economic factors, such as income and education, play a role in determining our health.
37
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
The Effect of Alcohol Taxes on Drunk Driving
KAI MORSE and Alyson Ma
In 2015 alcohol related car fatalities accounted for roughly one third of the total highway deaths in the United States. While
many states have laws and policies to prevent drunk driving, the rate of fatalities keeps rising year after year. I plan to study
the correlation between states alcohol taxes and their alcohol impaired fatality rate. I will use cross-sectional data from all
50 states and D.C. of their 2015 tax rates and total number of alcohol impaired fatalities for all ages and under 21 year olds.
I also will include a few variables to capture drunk driving policies that states have to prevent traffic fatalities. Finally, a few
demographic variables like states unemployment rate and income per capita will capture the economic conditions of each
state. By examining the correlation between states with higher taxes and strict drunk driving laws with their alcohol fatality
rates, it creates a strong argument for state policy makers to acknowledge and follow suit.
42
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
The Role of SIKE in Cytoskeletal Rearrangement as Measured by Cell Migration
Studies
KARLI WITTENBERG and Jessica Bell
The innate immune system recruits nearby cells in response to viral infection just minutes after detection. This response
stimulates the cell to detect, migrate, and then consume the virus by phagocytosis which involves the breakdown,
rearrangement, and reassembly of the structural proteins in the cytoskeleton. Between innate immune activation and
cytoskeletal rearrangement, there is a small protein called Suppressor of IKK-epsilon (SIKE) that has been shown to interact
with the cytoskeleton and is phosphorylated at the onset of a viral infection. However, its function remains unknown. The
goal of this project was to perform cellular migration studies to determine if SIKE has any function in the rearrangement of
the cytoskeleton. This was done with a chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) cell line KBM-7 (HAP1) using both wild type
(wtHAP1) and a SIKE knockout via CRISPR technology (SIKE_CR). These migrations were performed in the presence and
absence of dsRNA to mimic a viral infection. Studies with dsRNA absence showed that both cell types did not close the wound
in the 24-hour imaging period. The SIKE_CR cell line appeared to be migrating more slowly, with an average percent closure
of 25% +/- 2% as compared to the wtHAP1 average percent closure of 35% +/- 5%. This work confirmed that SIKE plays a role
in cytoskeleton rearrangement. This study imparts not only a deeper understanding of the linkage between innate immunity
and cytoskeletal rearrangement but has additional implications in developmental and cellular metastasis research. Work
supported by NIH grant R21AI107447 and USD SURE.
44
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Child Obesity Rates in Southern States: The Effect of the Obama Presidency
Income and Spending on Illegal Drugs
JASON PEUGH and Alyson Ma
This paper analyzes the effect of differences in per capita income on marijuana, cocaine, and heroin at the state level. Using
data from the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration and the US Census Bureau, a regression equation
which factors out potentially significant alternative variables is estimated. The relationship between income and illegal drug
consumption is used to determine whether each of the three drugs could be classified as a normal or inferior good.
36 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
40
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
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/ Undergraduate Research Conference
KATELYN ALLENDE and Alyson Ma
One in three children in the United States is overweight or obese. In 2015, 13.9% of high school students were obese. This
paper explores the factors and behaviors that influence childhood obesity rates. Longitudinal data is observed in increments
of two years from 2009 to 2015, specifically within Southern states. Southern states are the focus region due to repeatedly
reported high figures and higher risks. The years studied observe the time Barrack Obama was in office to see how his
healthcare policies, as well as Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, may have impacted childhood obesity. Childhood
obesity has vast implications on healthcare and the state of the economy. Studying the possible effects of childhood obesity
could reduce medical complications and healthcare costs as well as boost human productivity in the United States economy.
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46
Tuesday, April 18
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52
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Socio-Economic Factors Determining Adult Literacy and the Effect on the Global
Economy
Efficacy of MPAs on the TCI Bank Determined by Queen Conch Densities
KATHRYN DONOHO and Alyson Ma
Lobatus gigas (Queen Conch) is a marine mollusk found in the warm waters of the Caribbean Archipelago. L. gigas is an
economically important species to South Caicos, which is the largest exporter of queen conch in the islands. Due to increased
demand and overfishing, the stocks of L. gigas have been in heavy decline. As a consequence, queen conch has been heavily
regulated. In addition to fishing regulations, the queen conch is protected by designated marine protected areas (MPA). These
are designed to bolster the population and allow for replenishment of the fishing stock through spillover and larval drift. This
study assesses the efficacy of the East Harbour Lobster and Conch Reserve (EHLCR) in protecting the queen conch population,
as well as increasing the fisheries stock. This was done by assessing siphonal lengths and conch densities on the Caicos Bank.
Median siphonal lengths of 158 mm for inside and 138 mm outside the MPA were found. These results line up with other
studies which assert that larger conch size is a tenant of a healthy, fully functioning MPA. It was also found that there were
no significant differences between densities of conch inside or outside the reserve. This may be vital for showing the MPA
is working effectively as it agrees with previous studies finding that the more effective spillover from the MPA is, the less
pronounced the density gradient. The data provided serves to partially answer the initial question of reserve efficacy.
Literacy is a crucial skill utilized by society to pursue economic growth and a better standard of living. Identifying the factors
that influence literacy will reveal an essential indicator of the variance in human development between countries and the
effects on global economy. This discovery has the potential to influence the public opinion on the solutions to improve adult
literacy rates at an international level.
47
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Design and Implementation of Pit Latrine Assistive Devices in Uganda
MEI-LI HEY, CRAIG WADE, HARRISON SCHMACHTENBERGER, LUKE UTRECHT and Ming Huang
This project includes the planning, designing, and present implementation of a humanitarian engineering project named
Simple Seat, Better Lives. The goal of this project is to address the problem concerning the use of pit latrines in Uganda,
specifically Lira, by individuals who have been handicapped by landmines. The objective is to design portable, low-cost
assistive devices that allow a handicapped individual to use the pit latrine in a safe and sanitary manner. The device must solve
physical and socially stigmatic problems for handicapped individuals using a pit-latrine. The devices must be constructed in
Uganda, by the landmine survivors themselves. For the production of these devices to take place in Uganda, a main design
specification is that the device must utilize local materials and tools for construction. Key performance parameters include
that the device must be able to stably support 250 lbs, weigh less than 18 lbs and deploy for use at the pit latrine in less
than 10 seconds. The designs serve as mobility assistive devices as well, in order to help users transport themselves easily
and effectively to the pit latrines. The project?s design constraints include economic, engineering, and social limitations. Our
research project has an economic factor as we partner with organizations in Uganda in order to create a sustainable plan to
test and distribute our devices. Further research while designing this device will be to explore sociocultural factors as we must
design the devices so that they are most effective and culturally acceptable.
50
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Lights, Camera, Verdict: The Constitutionality of the Media in the Courtroom
LAUREN HUGO and Andrew Tirrell
Defendants, attorneys, and judges all bring their own personal intentions into the courtroom; when journalists join that
conversation, however, the constitutional rights of the accused and the freedom of speech begin to clash. While some research
has been done on the effects of the media’s involvement in criminal trials, few have examined the progression of the balance
between the First and Sixth Amendments. My research attempts to answer the following: Has the Framers’ established balance
between the First and Sixth Amendments been shifted with the advancements of the media? Is one amendment superior
to the other? Has a limit on constitutionality been established through this ongoing debate? Content analysis of important
20th century Supreme Court cases, including Estes v. Texas and Chandler v. Florida, elevates a normative trend to illustrate
the current relationship between the two Amendments and predict where that relationship is headed. I hypothesize that,
contrary to the original intentions of the Framers, modern legal experts use a broader interpretation of the First Amendment
to hold those rights superior to the rights of the accused. Consequences of this trend, as well as themes that emerge when
constitutional limits are imposed, will be posited.
38 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
/ Undergraduate Research Conference
MACKENZIE CORDAN and Cathy Lockhart
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Understanding Strandingsand Mortality of California Sea Lion (Zalophus
californianus) Pups in San Diego County
MADILYN PARDINI and Todd Schmitt
Since 2013 Southern California has been experiencing elevated strandings of California sea lion pups. Understanding
what is causing these strandings may help researchers better predict when it will happen again and be better prepared to
accommodate the increased numbers in rescue centers. The temporal trends of California sea lion pups are evaluated using
data from the last ten years including survival rates. A body condition index was also created to evaluate the general health
of the stranded pups. The equation used to calculate the body indices is mass/length. Data was collected from SeaWorld San
Diego’s rescue center and included numbers of strandings, weight, and length measurements. San Diego County showed a
major increase in strandings starting in 2013. This increase may be related to warmer waters offshore of San Diego and the
subsequent decrease in sardine spawning. Sea lion pups that had higher body condition scores were correlated with a lower
rate of mortality. Body condition scores can be used to quickly assess the general health of stranded pups. Comparing the data
collected by SeaWorld San Diego to wild population data could further strengthen the results and the use of body condition as
an indicator of health.
56
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Gender N/A: Identity Disclosure in Activist Spaces and the ? Persona
MARGUERITE NGUYEN LEHMAN and Diane Keeling
Current social justice discourse centralizes identity disclosure as a marker of honesty and vulnerability. Particularly for
LGBTQ+ justice issues, identity disclosure is understood to be an accomplishment, whereas obscuring one’s identity represents
shame, insincerity, and an inability to form authentic relationships. Theories of personae account for obscured or closeted
identities through the fourth and null personae; the fourth persona denotes a closeted sexual identity that colludes with the
audience to together maintain the illusion of heterosexuality, while the null persona describes a marginalized identity that
engages in self-censorship in order to avoid victimization. However, these personae and LGBTQ+ justice discourse do not
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account for sexual or gender identities which are incommunicable for either personal or political reasons other than evading
marginalization. Identities may defy disclosure not as a means for evasion but for preservation of a politics-based identity that
defies taxonomies or to accommodate fluid identities. To accommodate this identity, I describe the ? persona as one that defies
conventions of taxonomy and disclosure to preserve undecidability as a resource for agency.
61
Tuesday, April 18
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58
Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
SwimLite - A Swim Pacing Device for Competitive Swimmers
MELISSA BEALL, KYLIE EVEN, LILY HOFFMAN and Kathleen Kramer and James Gilb
Originality and Ambition: Shakespeare, Satan, and the Romantics
MARIE MCDONALD-HULEN and Ivan Ortiz
This project explores the emergence of originality as an aesthetic value in art and literature in the Romantic Period. I
will analyze how and why these values shifted from emulation to originality, and why Romantic poets and critics upheld
Shakespeare as an example of originality as they developed poetic theory. My research also explores the connection between
originality and ambition. I will examine how ambition was treated as a characteristic in literature in the Romantic Period,
specifically in regards to the character of Satan in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. I also question how the Romantic treatment
of ambition relates to connotations of ambition today. In exploring this relationship, I will investigate how the values of the
Romantic period are similar or influential to values in aesthetics and in society today.
60
Tuesday, April 18
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62
Tuesday, April 18
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UC Forums
Examining Correlations Between Sediment Characteristics and Pesticide
Concentrations in Tecolote Canyon
NATALIE NYNAS and Ron Kaufmann
Therapist Cultural Factors Associated with Views on Standardized Assessment
MARY KUCKERTZ, Adriana Rodriguez, Anna Lau, Lauren Brookman-Frazee and Nicole Stadnick
Standardized assessment measures have shown to improve treatment outcomes (Bickman, Kelley, Breda, De Andrade, &
Riemer, 2011; Reese, Norsworthy, & Rowlands, 2009), yet utilization among community mental health providers is limited
(Ionita & Fitzpatrick, 2014). Specifically, higher rates of standardized assessment usage is linked to more positive therapist
attitudes towards evidence based practices (EBPs) (Jensen-Doss et al., 2016). A number of therapist sociodemographic and
professional factors have been shown to predict therapist attitudes towards the use of EBPs such as highest degree earned,
therapeutic orientation, and clinical experience (Reding, Chorpita, Lau, & Innes-Gomberg, 2014; Jensen-Doss & Hawley,
2010). Despite the potential influence of a therapist’s own cultural background on clinical perceptions and decisions, little is
known about the importance of cultural factors on therapists’ views of standardized assessment. The current study employs
hierarchical linear regression models to evaluate the association between therapist cultural factors (their race, generational
status, English and native language proficiencies, culture, and acculturation) and therapist perceptions towards the use of
standardized assessment. Attitudes are measured via the Attitudes Toward Standardized Assessment Scales-Monitoring and
Feedback Scale (Clinical utility and Practicality) (Jensen-Doss et al., 2016) and a third subscale (Confidence). Data were drawn
from an online survey completed by 341 mental health providers in Los Angeles County as part of a larger study examining
predictors of EBP sustainment within the context of a multiple EBP implementation effort. These findings can inform
community mental health services so as to provide insight into ways that a therapist’s cultural background may affect their
perception of standardized assessment during treatment.
40 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
The SwimLite is a portable performance enhancing training system for swimmers that will provide visual feedback by means
of a moving light pulse train set to a desired pace. The pace of the light pulse train will be set by the user either via the
LCD touchscreen interface attached to the system or via a Bluetooth connection to a mobile device. The LED strip will be
completely waterproof to a rating of IP68 with all other components water resistant to a rating of IP66. The entire system will
cost less than $1000.
/ Undergraduate Research Conference
Tecolote Creek runs through a developed watershed and has the potential to be impacted by pesticides. Previous sampling has
identified both chlordane, an organochlorine compound that was used from the early 1950s through the 1970s, and currentuse pesticides like pyrethroids, in Tecolote Creek (Kaufmann, unpublished data). Chlordane was completely banned in the
US in 1988 by the EPA due to its toxicity, potential carcinogenicity, environmental persistence, and ability to bioaccumulate
(EPA, 2016). Since pyrethroids are less toxic to mammals and birds, they have largely replaced chlordane and other
organophosphate pesticides (EPA, 2016). In this study, data were compiled in ArcGIS to map 10 sampling locations in relation
to sediment characteristics and pesticide concentrations, to produce a more detailed picture of how pesticide concentrations
in the creek bed vary over space and time and to determine sediment conditions where pesticides occur in highest
concentrations. Pesticide levels were generally found to be higher in the upper watershed than the lower watershed and higher
in summer than in winter. Pesticide concentrations were positively correlated with sediment organic carbon but not with grain
size. Seasonal patterns suggest that pesticides may originate in the upper watershed and be transported downstream during
winter rainfall events.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Study Buddies: A Modern Web Application to Connect Students and Tutors.
QUENTIN FULSHER, ALEX ALVAREZ, MELINDA GRAD, John Glick and Saturnino Garcia
In today’s socially networked world, it can be surprisingly difficult for students to find a good tutor and/or learning resources.
In most cases quality tutors can only be found through a tutoring company, by responding to fliers, or knowing a friend of a
friend. Extra learning materials are even more difficult to find. While online search engines make the task easier, it can still
be daunting to find relevant practice problems for an upcoming exam. Our partner, John Glick Scroggins, approached us to
help him with an idea to help grow his tutoring company “MathWizJohn’s Study Buddies”. As a result, we developed “Study
Buddies”, a web application that can fulfill all the needs of a struggling student in one place. Our goal is to quickly and
effectively provide students with supplementary study materials, support video based lessons, and connect students with an
exceptional tutor.
u n i v e r s i t y o f s a n d i e g O
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68
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74
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UC Forums
Instructions Influence on Performance
The Consistency of Maternal Structuring Behavior with Toddlers during Teaching
and Compliance Situations
RAGHAD ALODIBI and Rachel Blaser
The study aimed at examining the effects of instruction on test performance of some college students at the University of San
Diego. A simple multiple choice test was distributed to a sample of 40 students selected from the psychology department
participant pool. These participants viewed a short video of a TED talk and answered a set of 15 question thereafter. Two
groups of students were given different instructions designed to influence their perception of test difficulty. I hypothesize that
the instructions given on an exam can greatly influence the performance of the student.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
The Effect of Politician’s Gender and Sexual Orientation on Voting Behaviors
RITA TAYLOR and Anne Koenig
Women have often been at a disadvantage when it comes to leadership positions because they are perceived as lacking the
necessary masculine traits for effective leadership. Though this is improving, studies have shown that female politicians are
at a particular disadvantage. Voters often perceive them as lacking the masculine traits deemed necessary for leadership, like
competency or agency, as well as the feminine traits that make them likeable, like warmth. The role of traits and stereotypes
in leadership positions and politics is of particular interest in regards to gay men and lesbian women. Research has shown
that perceived traits of gay men and lesbian women often transgress from traditional gender stereotypes. Gay men are often
rated as being high in both warmth and competence, while lesbian women are often rated as being higher in competence than
heterosexual women. In politics, where voters value feminine traits like empathy, gay men and lesbian women could actually
be at an advantage and be subject to “positive discrimination.” The present study sought to investigate how a politician’s
gender and sexual orientation affected a voter’s choice. Participants were given one of four target conditions that described
a fictional political candidate. The participants were asked to rate the candidate on different traits and were then asked how
likely they would be to vote for this candidate in a local, state, and federal election. Results and conclusions will be discussed.
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UC Forums
Uncle Sam v. the Marlboro Man: A Study on the Effect of the U.S. Government’s
Intervention on Cigarette Consumption
SAMANTHA BAKER and Alyson Ma
Cigarette smoking has a major effect on the health and wellness, as well as the economy as a whole, with an average of
480,000 deaths (1 in 5) from cigarette-related illnesses and over $300 billion spent yearly on health care for cigarette-related
ailments. So the focus of this research will be to see the degree to which governmental intervention has helped reduce
consumption, both through taxation and bans on advertising for cigarettes in the media. Through building a regression
analysis of consumption of cigarettes as a function of the tax and price per pack in each state, the awareness of risks of illness
due to cigarette smoking, race breakdown by state, state GDP, state population, and three dummy variables to account for
the various advertising bans, I will be able to tell which is the most important factor in deterring cigarette consumption. The
results of this study will then be able to tell the most effective way to reduce cigarette use, whether that be through taxation
or further limits on cigarette companies advertising so that cigarette consumption can be reduced even further in the coming
years.
42 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
/ Undergraduate Research Conference
SARAH DEMPSEY-PRIOLEAU and SARAH WEEKS and Adriana Molitor
Evolving conceptualizations of effective parenting styles argue that behaviors that reflect parental structure (vs. ambiguity)
should be distinguished from those reflecting parental autonomy support (vs. control) as they are often confused with
each other. Yet both appear necessary to facilitate children’s motivation and competence. Moreover, while much research
has investigated autonomy supportive parenting, far less is known about parental structuring behavior. For example,
some research indicates that parental autonomy support may be influenced not only by parent and child qualities but by
situational factors such as pressure. The present study explores whether maternal structuring is consistent across several
teaching and compliance tasks with toddlers. Specifically, mothers of 30-month-olds were rated on behaviors previously
identified as components of structuring and presently adapted for parental interaction with toddlers: clarity of guidance,
informative feedback, rationales, opportunity, resourceful leadership, coordination, and predictability. Analyses examined the
correspondence between maternal behaviors across these contexts.
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Tuesday, April 18
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UC Forums
Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Decision-Making and Action Selection
SHALIN SHAH, Luke Muskett, Victoria Coleman and Divya Sitaraman
The simplest of organisms are capable of prioritizing among basic adaptive behaviors, such as sleep, courtship, and aggression,
which are typically conserved across species. This inherent prioritization suggests that underlying neural mechanisms for
each of these behaviors must somehow interact. Furthermore, deficit in any of these areas may affect decision-making within
another, adding to the complexity of interactions. This research looks specifically at the interaction of sleep with other
behaviors in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Not only is this organism well-studied and genetically adjustable, but
our understanding of the fruit fly’s brain suggests that it represents a simplified version of the human brain. We examine the
effects of sleep-deprivation on courtship, testing whether the organism’s tendency for courtship loses its priority. Secondly,
this research analyzes the effects of sleep deprivation on decision-making within the complex behavior of oviposition. It is
expected that sleep-deprivation does, in fact, affect behavioral prioritization and decision-making negatively, and further
research will aim to assess underlying neural pathways.
78
Tuesday, April 18
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UC Forums
Military Expenditures in High Income Countries
NICK SINZIG and Alyson Ma
This paper analyzes the trends in military expenditures and offers an econometric investigation of their determinants in the
top ten defense spending countries. A public choice framework is applied to analyze military expenditures as a percent of
GDP and its contributors, ranging from financial indicators, geographical variables, and the form of government. Military
expenditures may indeed benefit a domestic economy; however, heavy spending may lead to a negative impact of rival nations.
u n i v e r s i t y o f s a n d i e g O
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79
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86
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Tourist Viewing Preferences and Valuation of Large Mammals in Serengeti National
Park
European Union Conditionality: Examining Minority Rights in Romania
SHANNON KUZMICK, Cassie Festa, Erica Stanislawski
The process of enlargement in the European Union is a key strategy for the EU to exert influence on new member states. The
EU acts as an external force on member states. States may respond to the goals set out before them by the EU and may adopt
values and goals internally. This process, known as conditionality, gives key insight into the influencing power of the EU. One
area in which the EU seeks to assert influence is in the realm of minority rights. This article seeks to measure conditionality in
the EU by focusing on minority rights. Using Romania as a case study, I will analyze the degree of influence the EU has in this
area and whether or not this influence is enough to bring about changes in Romania’s minority protection policies and in the
conditions of key minority groups in the country.
This study analyzed viewing patterns and tourist valuation of large mammal species in Serengeti National Park. Revealed and
stated preference methods were used to understand tourist preferences and views of mammals in the park. Big cats and large
mammal species in general were the top two attractions for the park. Tourists allotted the majority of their time and effort
game-viewing to carnivores and big cats, spending an average of 12.26 minutes at each sighting. When tourists were asked
if they would be willing to pay an extra fee for wildlife conservation, most said yes, with the average willingness at $162.
These findings show the value of large mammals in sustaining tourist attraction in protected areas. Recommendations for park
management include efforts focused on diversifying tourist attractions, broadening tourist activity to include under-advertised
species through education programs, and instituting an extra entrance fee framework used to further conservation efforts.
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UC Forums
Tourism as an Agent of Poverty Alleviation
TANIA TOUSSAINT VON BERTRAB and Alysa Ma
The research seeks to discover if tourism can act as a an agent of poverty alleviation. By proving that an increase in tourism
can lead to a decrease in poverty levels, policy reforms, marketing strategies, and global efforts can be done to use this tool to
combat poverty.
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UC Forums
Drag: Spectacle, Transformance, and the Construction of Gender Utopia
TYLER HENRY and Kristin Moran
The purpose of my research is to investigate drag as a specific form of gender performance that aligns with feminist ideologies
and goals in order to provide a more inclusive understanding of gender. A problem with understandings of gender is that
gender is often seen as fixed, or when transgressed as a temporal and adopted performances. I am using critical analyses,
applying spectacle and transformance theories, to drag as a gender performance with RuPaul’s Drag Race as the text to support
my analysis. In my research, I argue that performances of drag support feminist understandings, even in its radical form,
because it supports the notion that we are all performing drag all of the time due to our coexisting identities as performer and
audience, which liberates men and women from the confines of masculinity and femininity.
LAYNE GARRELTS and Andrew Tirrell
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UC Forums
The Politics of Maternity: Post-Feminism and Native Canadian Feminism in Margaret
Atwood?s Surfacing
RACHEL LA DUE and Atreyee Phukan
The female body is the subject of a great amount of debate, engaging both feminists who wish to preserve an authentic
independent female form and patriarchal forces that seek to govern and impose upon this form. These conversations rely
on the assumption that the female body retains intrinsic meaning. For my research, I locate the maternal state of the female
body as the assumed site of natural femininity, as well as the site of women’s oppression. I focus on Margaret Atwood’s novel,
“Surfacing,” which presses against natural significations of the maternal body through the unnamed narrator’s quest for an
essential self in the Canadian wilderness. Given the setting of the novel, I identify the ways in which Native Canadian women’s
maternal bodies have also been “naturalized” and legislated by colonial powers. I argue that in both narrative and syntactical
form, Atwood reveals the futility of the narrator’s attempt to access a natural feminine state through her maternal body. I will
analyze the maternal body Margaret Atwood presents as a trope in “Surfacing?” from two different theoretical traditions: the
post-feminist tradition Judith Butler establishes a framework for in “Gender Trouble,” and the long-standing feminist traditions
upheld by Native Canadian women. I explore the strains between these two traditions, and I contend that both traditions
propose a radical rethinking of representational politics in which the category of what is “woman” in social and political
practices no longer rests upon a naturalized understanding of the maternal body.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Combating the Race Gap in STEM Education for Students of Color
CRASH KETCHAM and Eric Cathcart
Access to STEM education is far from equitable. Research shows higher test scores on average in STEM related subjects for
K-8 education in white students than students of color, specifically black and Latino students. There are multiple programs
and initiatives to combat this inequality in STEM education, including out-of-school programs and inquiry based field trips.
Through my internship with the Ocean Discovery Institute, I was able to implement these methods in communities of color
and experience the challenges of teaching science to 3rd grade students.
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ALISSON MAE MAGSUMBOL and Joseph Provost
New Product Integration
Arsenic occurs naturally and is found in either oxidation states of arsenite (As(III)) or arsenate (As(V)), depending on
the quantity of dissolved oxygen present in the soil. A few options available for the detection of arsenic include liquid
chromatography coupled with fluorescence detection, as well as various field kits. Another option that is available are bacterial
biosensors, which are whole cells that can be engineered with wild-type gene induced promoters to detect environmental
contaminants. The vector can be further engineered to yield either a fluorescence or a color output, and have different
sensitivities for the detection of the environmental contaminants. In this work, we attempted to create a biosensor that had
an altered ribosome binding efficiency to output blue coloration in the presence of arsenic ranging 0.05-100 µg/L in potable
water and soil. In addition, we examined two established biosensors using beta-galactosidase and green fluorescence protein
as the reporters (kind gifts from Dr. Jan Roelof van der Meer). To investigate the utility of each construct, we transformed
DH5-alpha and XL10-gold bacteria with each construct and incubated the culture in a variety of time incubations in several
arsenic concentrations. Soil was collected and analyzed from areas surrounding Mission Bay, San Diego and Black Mountain,
San Diego. Each reported to pose high levels of arsenic. Most sites were near detection limits; however, an increased presence
of arsenic was determined for the Black Mountain site. This work shows the potential for biosensors and the ability for
inexpensive field analysis of toxic compounds.
CHRIS MAH and David Weichel
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UC Forums
CPC Strategy is a digital marketing company that aids retailers in matching inventory with consumer intent. With the growing
clientele at CPC Strategy, the number of clients per Retail Search Manager (RSM) has grown along with it. As the number
of clients increases, RSMs become increasingly hampered with the process of adding new products for a specific client to
a campaign and ad group in Google AdWords. The New Product Integration tool addresses this obstacle by examining the
preexisting structure of campaign and ad group breakouts in Google AdWords and automatically assigning a new product
based on similarities with existing products. The New Products Report (NPR) pulls all the products with a creation date within
the past two weeks and sends alerts to the respective RSMs. The Product Group Addition (PGA) pulls the Product Partition
Report from Google AdWords and the New Products Report from our proprietary FTP. The PGA runs a matching algorithm to
select the best fit for each new product based on the respective hierarchy for each campaign for each client. The NPR and PGA
use a combination of Python and Ruby scripts to accomplish these tasks.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
An exploration of Chicano identity: the intersection between politics and culture
ANGELICA LEYVA and Kevin Guerrieri
Smart Pool Monitor
PIERCE SALAMACK, ASHLEY DEWOLFE, JEFFREY KADIS, James Gilb, Kathleen Kramer
The current methods of testing and maintaining pool chemistry levels are inaccurate and ineffective. Pool owners are forced
to manually obtain a sample of pool water and perform subjective chemical tests using tests strips or drive to their local pool
supply retailer to get their water samples analyzed. Our product is being built with the consumer in mind, saving them time,
money, and effort. The Smart Pool Monitoring System is a battery powered device that floats in a pool which will accurately
and automatically measure both pH and chlorine levels. This device will contain enough power to last throughout the
summer season (3 months) without requiring batteries to be changed. The data obtained will then be transferred to an open
data platform that the user can monitor. Once water conditions come close to being out of the acceptable (predetermined)
range, the open data platform will alert the user giving them recommendations of required chemicals to balance their water
chemistry.
I plan to combine ideas and approaches from the two general disciplines of my majors at USD: Political Science and Spanish.
I will explore the Chicano identity: when the term was first used, what was the original connotation of the term, and what is
its connotation now. At the same time I will explore how the acceptance of this identity played a huge role in the formation of
the Chicano movement and the formation of united neighborhoods. In order to explore this theme, I will orient my project on
various books written by authors who identify themselves as Chicana/o – or were classified as Chicana/o authors, interviews
with Chican@s who have had a role in activities centered on the Chicano activities (examples: Chicano movement, creation
and preservation of Chicano Park, art at Chicano Park, Chicano themed shops, Chicano businesses), watch and analyze
movies and songs that refer to the Chicano. I want to explore Chicano Park with a more critical and analytical view, to explore
how the park and surrounding area has grown and receive national attention, and I also want to investigate other places they
have the same or similar sense of place and identity.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Next-Generation Public Transportation Ticket Vending Machine for Cubic
EMILY MCCUE, IAN LITUCHY, ANA LOPEZ, MATT STOCKTON and Michael Hilton, Wes Ice, Katie Busch-Sorensen,
Thomas Busch-Sorensen, James Gilb and Kathleen Kramer
Cubic Transportation Systems has requested the initial groundwork for a next-generation ticket vending machine in a project
that will update the existing machines with internal wireless communications and renewable energy. A peer-to-peer network of
several RF-enabled ZigBee components including a keypad, receipt printer, and coin acceptor has been configured. A printed
circuit board will interface these components and be compatible with the existing Cubic machines. One goal of this project is
to achieve enough data to eliminate the need for many of the current wires between major modules. Solar energy will be used
to maximize the collection of energy from the ticket vending machine’s environment. Harvested solar power will be stored in a
battery then distributed using switch regulators. Together, these updates will create a powerful and innovative ticket vending
machine.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Heads-Up Display: Creating a Transparent Speedometer on a Windshield
Effects of Hydrographic Conditions on Phytoplankton Communities in Mission Bay,
San Diego
JOSHUA ALLEN, KELSEY GOELZ, PAINE HARRIS, James Gilb, and Kathleen Kramer
This heads-up display will place typical automobile dashboard information onto a transparent screen projecting onto a
windshield. The device will sit on the dashboard in front of the driver and will connect to the car?s computer and battery
through the on-board diagnostics port. The car?s computer provides the pertinent dashboard information while the battery
will power the device. The information will be shown on a transparent display called a combiner that is attached to an LCD
screen. The display of the device will be visible in variable weather conditions. Additionally, it will provide accurate real-time
information on its display.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Bleached, Permed, and Relaxed: An examination of beauty standards in relation to
the black female body
CHELSEA MCLIN and Carlton Floyd
In Jamaica and the United States, the beauty industry banks on the insecurities of black women to fit a model of white beauty
through perms, relaxers, skin bleaching products, etc. There has been a rise in movements that promote acceptance of the
traits black women are born with. To see these traits as beautiful, however, black women must take on the difficult task of
resisting standards of beauty that do not reflect them. This research project focuses on the effects of these beauty standards on
black women, specifically black girls, in Jamaica and the United States. Through close readings of literature, observations, and
reader response, I seek to answer the following questions: 1) how do black women respond to societal expectations of beauty,
and 2) how does society respond to black women?
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UC Forums
CRISTINA CLARK and Ron Kaufmann
Mission Bay, San Diego, is home to numerous species of phytoplankton. The abundance and diversity of phytoplankton
in Mission Bay, a seasonally variable estuary, are known to vary with distance from the mouth of the bay, becoming more
abundant and less diverse with increasing distance from the mouth. Dinoflagellates are dominant near the mouth (front
bay), while diatoms prevail in the eastern portion of the bay (back bay). Hydrographic conditions (temperature, salinity, etc.)
also can affect phytoplankton abundance and diversity. The critical ecological role of phytoplankton as primary producers
emphasizes the importance of understanding the factors that influence their dynamics. This study examines how hydrographic
conditions correlate with changes in phytoplankton abundance and diversity in Mission Bay over hourly time scales, and how
these parameters and relationships vary throughout the bay. Chlorophyll and phytoplankton samples were collected every
other hour over a 24 hour period at three locations, in the front, middle, and back bay. The results of this project should
provide important insights into the relationship between hydrographic factors and phytoplankton abundance and composition
in Mission Bay.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Ebisu: An Innovative User-Input Solution.
USEF GHOUTH, BRITTANY BARNES, and Eric Jiang
Ebisu is a Machine Learning Algorithm that aims to recognize and categorize wearable device data, such as accelerometer data,
into gestures. These gestures open up a new avenue in user-machine interaction, allowing customers to have a form-fitting
experience with their technology. Ebisu will detect and categorize multi-dimensional data into both pre-learned gestures and
new ones, giving it the ability to learn user-specific commands and interaction. To pair along with the Ebisu software, we are
also designing a physical wearable prototype that will transmit data to a host device for processing.
Effects of High Environmental Ammonia and Acetazolamide Exposure Towards the
Mechanism of Na+ Uptake within Native Rio Negro Tetras
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
ASHLEY MITCHELL, VINEZA REDUTA and Richard Gonzalez
Front Sight Focus: The Rifle, And How It Changed The Battlefield
We examined ionoregulatory characteristics of four species of characiform fish [(Rosy tetras (Hyphessobrycon rosaceus),
Serpae tetras (Hyphessobrycon eques), Emperor tetras (Nematobrycon palmeri) and Penguin tetras (Thayeria obliqua)] native
to the Rio Negro, an extremely ion-poor, acidic tributary of the Amazon River, to gain insight into the mechanisms of ion
regulation possessed by Rio Negro fish. When exposing the fish to 1 mmol L-1 NH4Cl- (high external ammonia [HEA]),
the Emperor tetras increased in JNa influx by 30%, suggesting an association between Na+ uptake and ammonia excretion.
Rosy and Serpae displayed no significance in sodium uptake. The lack of inhibition by HEA indicates that Na+ uptake is not
dependent on ammonia excretion through a Na+/NH4+ exchange complex. On the other hand, Na+ intake in Penguin tetras
decreased by 50% when exposed to the same HEA, suggesting an inhibitory response to HEA. As for acetazolamide, it is a
carbonic anhydrase inhibitor used to assess whether Na+ uptake is driven by the H+ ions generated from the enzyme. When
exposing the fish to this drug, the Serpae tetras showed a 50% decrease of Na+ uptake, suggesting that Na+ uptake relies on
the supply of H+ ions from carbonic anhydrase function. Penguins, Rosys, and Emperors showed no significant response
to the inhibitory drug. Thus, the ionoregulatory mechanisms are similar to those of Rio Negro species, suggesting a loose
correlation between sodium uptake and ammonia excretion and shedding further light onto the novel mechanism of these
characiform fish species.
CHRISTOPHER REIMANN and Kathryn Statler
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This paper will examine three historically and technologically distinct rifles (the smoothbore musket, the breach-loading rifle,
and the bolt-action rifle) through the lens of three major “world wars” fought in by European powers (the Napoleonic Wars,
the Second Anglo-Afghan War, and the Great War) and how the various specifications and capabilities of these weapons – their
overall lethality and effectiveness on the battlefield, so to speak – influenced the evolution and philosophy of battlefield tactics.
This area of history is not a mainstream field of historical study due to its level of specificity and its oftentimes graphic content.
Additionally, this area of history – especially with regards to firearms – is becoming increasingly politicized, which could cause
some historians to stay away from this area of history in an effort to avoid any controversy that these studies may cultivate. The
increasingly politicized and controversial nature of guns does not necessarily make the topic “untouchable” in the academic
sphere and this papers hopes to remind people of that; this is possibly another reason as to why this area of historical study is
less populated than others. In addition to its goal of filling a historiographical void, this paper aims to demystify the world of
firearms and their application by revealing that the history behind the finest weapons of ages past is rich, complex, and worthy
of further investigation.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
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Tuesday, April 18th, 2017
Session I; 12:10-1:00PM
UC Forums
The Relationship Between Consumer Waste Disposal Efficiency and Average
Household Income
Capillary Wave Dynamics in Fluid-Fluid Phase Separated Solutions
DAVID RUDOKAS and Alyson Ma
Both fluid-fluid phase separation and surface waves are commonly seen in nature; surface waves are exemplified by the ripples
along the surface of a pond on a breezy day while an emulsion such as an oil-water mixture is a good example of fluid-fluid
solution. Thermal fluctuations at the surface or interface of a fluid cause capillary waves. The dynamics of these thermal
capillary waves are dominated by the effects of surface tension. By varying the volume factions of colloid and polymer in
our fluid-fluid phase separated suspension the interface surface tension can by varied. This allows examination of capillary
characteristics such as capillary decay time. To examine the interface, we utilize Differential Dynamic Microscopy, a Fourier
analysis correlation technique.
As attention towards the environment and how to practice sustainable habits increases, it is important to determine efficient
and effective policy in order to promote healthy environmental habits. The purpose of this research project is to study the
correlation between demographic variables and the recycling rate in order to determine how to implement the most effect
policies and legislation. I plan on focusing my study on the state of California and using data acquired at the county level in
order to refine my study. The data will come from the California department of Recycling and the US Census Bureau, and I
will use Stata in order to test correlations and run regressions on the data. The goal of this study is to prove that income has
a negative correlation with the recycling rate, while also studying the effects of specific demographic variables such as age
and educational attainment. I will also analyze the impact of recycling based programs such as curbside recycling and market
based incentives.
WILLIAM HELMER, Ryan McGorty
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Contributing Factors to First-Year Students’ Initial Sense of Belonging at the
University of San Diego
SARAH SHOTTS and Lisa Nunn
A significant amount of research emphasizes the importance of obtaining a sense of belonging for success in an academic
setting, as it leads to increased academic self-efficacy, greater class participation, and overall better retention and persistence
(Freeman, Anderman, & Jensen, 2007; O’Keeffe, 2013; Strayhorn, 2012). However, much less research focuses on concrete
factors that contribute to this sense of belonging on university campuses. This research project adds to that, and evaluates
how seven factors uniquely affect first-year students’ initial sense of belonging at the University of San Diego: friendship
groups, confidence in academic abilities, comfort in living environment, involvement in extracurricular activities, financial
aid satisfaction, race, and first-generation status. The dependent variable is measured by a student’s self-identified sense of
belonging, as it was self-reported in response to the phrase “I feel like I belong at USD” on a five point Likert scale. The data
analyzed in this project is from the “USD Transition Survey,” a 34-item questionnaire administered by the Center for Student
Success at the University of San Diego in September of Fall 2016 that was sent via email to first-year students during their
third week at the university. The results of this project will not only offer deeper insight into factors that are related to a firstyear student’s initial sense of belonging at a small, liberal arts university, but also illuminate how effectively the University of
San Diego has fostered the formation of that individual, initial sense of belonging among first-year students.
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Tuesday, April 18
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Blue Lives in the Line of Fire: Police Militarization & Safe Neighborhoods
WILLIAM VAZQUEZ and Michael Gonzalez
I will be examining the history of police militarization in the United States and how it has evolved over time and how it
was played a role in our lives. A lot of my paper will be interviewing current and former police officers, specifically in Los
Angeles and asking them how police militarization is necessary to keep neighborhoods safer and to keep them safe I will also
examine how the term “police militarization” has a very negative connotation and I will try to offer some better words such as
professionalization or preparedness.
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Day Two, Session I, Interactive Exhibits
Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
La Gran Terraza Patio
Instructions: Ignore the Narrative Voice
JONATHAN HALL and April Wilder
Drawing primarily from the work Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut, this piece is an explorative response, particularly in
regards to death and trauma reconciliation. The project deals with a limited scope of the Meta potential of a written work.
However, the audience proper is not to be addressed directly, with the text not wishing to go quite so far. “Instructions” will,
nonetheless, be a piece that is, to all extents, highly aware of itself. As such, one of, if not the principal character included, Mr.
Charles, is to be aware that he is in a story. Yet he considers himself to be a real person, thinking all other elements are faux
and still remaining ignorant of the audience. This allows for a hybrid between third person limited and third person omniscient perspectives that is equally challenging and exhilarating to produce. As far as a rough narrative goes, Mr. Charles will be
faced with a death, and the following arc will detail the negotiation between his standing belief that the dead individual is not
real, and yet so visceral and tangible in the finality that this death presents. So through following Mr. Charles and his world,
acknowledgement of a condition, no matter how dire or wondrous, is to liberate the individual, granting pure agency to act
and alter upon the very forces, now only shades and husks, that once held one down in muck, mire, and sweat.
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Day Two, Session I, Poster Presentations
7
Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Palmitoylation of the Sodium Hydrogen Exchanger Isoform 1
1
Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
EMILY PITSCH, Alex Holland and Joseph Provost
Computationally Modeled Drug Resistance in P. falciparum Enzyme PfDHFR-TS
ADAM EAKIN and Joachim Latzer
Resistance has developed to almost all common antimalarial medications. Because of the lack of understanding of the specific
mutations that occur to cause drug resistance, no drug has been developed to bond to both the wild type and likely future
mutants of Malaria. A common target for antimalarial drugs is P. falciparum dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase
(PfDHFR-TS) because of its role in catalyzing the thymidylate cycle, which is involved in dTMP production and DNA
synthesis. Ideally, through better understanding the specific changes that stop drugs from being effective, drugs could be
designed that would be able to maintain effectiveness despite these mutations in PfDHFR-TS or similar drug targets. In this
work, AMBER molecular dynamics simulations are used to study a large variety of mutations as well as the specific changes in
energy necessary for a drug to change from being effective to ineffective. The binding energy calculations were carried out for
each individual mutant using the MMTSB toolset in AMBER 14. None of the mutants studied in this paper showed resistance
to the WRA drug following a single amino acid mutation in the binding pocket, but many showed a decreased binding affinity
for the drug when compared to the wild-type enzyme. Further mutations on these mutants could illuminate possible paths to
drug resistance.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
The sodium hydrogen exchanger isoform 1 (NHE1) regulates intracellular pH and directs protein motility as an anchor for
proteins at the leading edge of migrating cells. NHE1 has three putative palmitoylation cysteine targets in its cytoplasmic tail.
Palmitoylation, a reversible, post-translational fatty acid modification of cysteine residues, alters cellular location and function
of many proteins. 2-bromopalmitate (2BP) catalyzes palmitoylation and irreversibly inhibits the protein acyltransferases.
Using a live-dead assay, we found that up to 50 ?M 2BP had a minimal (8.5 -/+ 2.5 % SEM) effect on cell viability and was
not significantly different than the control palmitate at all concentrations. A 25% reduction in NHE1 palmitoylation was
observed after the addition of 15 ?M 2BP over 18 hours of incubation. Incubation of 15 ?M 2BP in lung fibroblasts expressing
human NHE1 (PSN) abrogated cell proliferation in low serum (0.5% FBS) conditions and reduced proliferation four fold in
the presence of 10% FBS. Interestingly cells incubated with 2BP show a diminished adhesive ability on glass, but no adhesion
inhibition occurred on plastic in complete media. LPA-induced stress fiber formation was decreased in cells treated with
2BP compared to vehicle control. Finally, we show the impact of 2BP on intracellular pH indicating a role of palmitoylation
on NHE1 function. Together this work shows a novel and yet undiscovered regulation of an important protein involved in
intracellular pH homeostasis and directed cell motility.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
The Study of Metal Organic Frameworks and Polymer Interactions in Matrix
Membranes
The Affordable Care Act and its Impact on Health Insurance Coverage and Health
Outcomes
AIDAN KENNEDY and Alyson Ma
Recently, President Donald Trump signed an executive order with the intention of repealing the Affordable Care Act. Before
legislative action is taken, it is critical that the effects of the Affordable Care Act are considered and scrutinized in detail.
Various aspects of the legislation may prove as valuable tools in promoting access and equity in our healthcare system. I intend
to measure the Affordable Care Act’s impact on insurance coverage and health outcomes using a difference-in-differences
regression model.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
ALEXI ODEGARD and Lauren Benz
Membrane technology can be used for gas separation, distillation, and filtration, all of which have great potential in areas
such as environmental protection, water shortages, and energy consumption. Mixed matrix membranes (MMM’s) are popular
in membrane research due to their ability to combine standard membrane features, while offering better solutions in terms
of performance, pollution levels, permeability and longevity. Mixed matrix membranes composed of polyvinylidenefluoride
(PVDF) and zeolite imidazolate framework 8 (ZIF-8) were explored in this study. The effects of various PVDF polymorphs on
membrane properties were analyzed by characterizing the interactions occurring between PVDF and ZIF-8 in a MMM. Infrared
Spectroscopy (IR spectroscopy) data, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) data, as well as scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) images were collected to determine features of the physical interactions within the membrane. We probed the effects of
particle size, PVDF crystallization structure, and ratios of PVDF to ZIF-8 on the interactions between polymer and MOF. The
characterization of these interactions could allow for more complex mixed matrix membrane designs.
Does the Economy Drive Demand for Commercial Real Estate? An International
Comparison
ALENA KAYE and Alyson Ma
The commercial real estate market has been the subject of a considerable amount of research. Due to a lack of information,
many of these studies have limited time frames, causing a leveling bias and an underestimation of the volatile commercial real
estate market. Moreover, none of these studies are recent and thus cannot accurately reflect the current state of the commercial
real estate market. Using data from 15 countries over the past 10 years, this paper seeks to understand the impact that key
macroeconomic indicators have on commercial real estate values and rents. By increasing the period of time studied and
expanding the number of countries included in the research, this study aims to not only do away with the leveling effect that
was prevalent in prior studies, but also take into account that the commercial real estate market is a global market.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
A Consideration of Mexican Immigration Policy Reform: How U.S. and Mexican
Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Conditions Influence and Shape Migration
Behavior
Filter Bubbles and Political Activism: A Content Anslysis of Facebook during the
2016 Election
ALIX NAUGLER and Stephen Conroy
MONICA GRUENINGER, Kendall Cichanowicz, Patrick Downing, Lilyana Espinoza, Julie Lai, Jared Miller-Sclar,
Dominique
The nationalistic rhetoric adopted by the newly-elected presidents’ administration along with the public’s climaxing antiimmigrant hysteria has forced Mexican immigration intervention to the top of the U.S. agenda. Misconceptions regarding
the role Mexican people play in stealing jobs, threatening cultural, political, and ethnic traditions, and straining public
welfare, educational, and healthcare resources have promoted a division and spurred a fear among the American people.
This politically-fabricated “schizophrenia” has ceased the political and economic collaboration between the two nations and
unilaterally militarized the U.S.-Mexico border. In this evaluation of the U.S. government’s immigration policies and the
resulting migratory flows across the U.S-Mexico border, it is evident that new policy measures need to be implemented to
reflect these nuanced trends which stand contrary to conventional wisdom. This research examines how various macro- and
micro-level indicators have shaped and influenced Mexican migration behavior in the long- and short-term and how these
conditions should be reflected in future Mexican immigration policy initiatives.
Rougheau, Alexandria Young, Kira Housman, Taylor Morway and Mary Brinson
62% of people admit to using Facebook for news. This can be problematic for political knowledge and democracy. In the
recent presidential election, people tended to selectively expose themselves to media and online conversations that aligned
with their existing beliefs. In addition to this, Facebook algorithms showed people stories and posts that fit their beliefs and
likes. This filter bubble phenomenon possibly impacted the election. This study employs a content analysis of social media to
help us better understand this problem.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Binding Determinants between Sodium Hydrogen Exchanger 1 and Calcineurin
Homologous Protein isoforms 1 and 2
I Am That I Am
The Sodium Hydrogen Exchanger (NHE1) is a ubiquitously expressed protein, which regulates cell volume, intracellular
pH, and motility. This antiporter exchanges an intracellular proton for an extracellular sodium and is regulated by a range of
protein or lipid interactions and phosphorylations. Calcineurin Homologous Protein isoform 1 (CHP1) and isoform 2 (CHP2)
both bind to essentially the same site on the carboxyl terminus of NHE1. However, while CHP1 and CHP2 share a 61%
amino residue homology, they have different binding affinities for NHE1. Understanding how one isoform can bind NHE with
greater affinity than another is of interest because CHP1 is required for basic NHE1 function and a physiological role of CHP2
has not been identified. To study the interaction of each CHP isoform with NHE1, we have generated a GST-NHE1 fusion
protein (aa 803-846) and His tagged CHP1 and 2. After expression and reconstitution of a thrombin-cleaved NHE1 peptide
with CHP, we determined the interaction using pull-down and thermal melt. To identify possible binding determinates on
NHE1 for each CHP isoforms, we will mutate eight residues of NHE1 thought to play a role binding CHP. These key residues
include: Asn519Ala, Asn519Asp, Ile518Gln/Ile522Gln, Ile534Lys, Ile537Lys, His523Gly, His523Ile, and Asp536Gly. Protein
interactions with recombinant CHP1 or CHP2 with each mutant NHE1 peptide was determined using thermal denaturation,
circular dichroism, and other biophysical methods. This work will illuminate potential interaction sites on NHE1 for CHP and
demonstrate sites common and unique for both CHP isoforms.
CHELSEA MARSHALL and Joseph Provost
BRIAN LYNCH and Joel Gruber
Demonstrating the eternality of God as omnipotent and omnipresent is a daunting task that has been undertaken by
many Philosophers and thus far achieved by none. The difficulty in performing this task stems from the sheer scale and
inconceivability of God as Infinite Being. And yet, we still describe this alleged God with words and personage that attempt to
describe its qualities objectively. As a human being, one is limited in perception of the Infinite by the finite boundaries of our
lifespan. Rudolf Otto discusses the “inexpressible” or “ineffable” quality of the Holy and he relates that it “completely eludes
apprehension in terms of concepts” (1963). In this project, I discuss the possibility of more inclusive methodology that would
describe the finite dimensions of God with respect to one’s own experience and would provide a more expansive and intuitive
moral insight. Theological and philosophical debates over the existence of God have had a seemingly endless and inconclusive
character, and authors disagree upon the premises of each others’ concepts. Ongoing debates over God’s existence or qualities
arise from the futility of attempting to express the nature of a Being whose alleged infinity precludes objective description.
Could subjective definitions of God’s Being in fact elude the same problems commonly invited when objectively debating the
existence of God?
56 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Womanhood and Ungendering in Octavia Butler?s Wild Seed
Rate of Marine Snow Aggregate Formation: Effect of Phytoplankton Growth Phase
CHRISTINA RONTELL and Marcelle Maese-Cohen
CIERA VILLEGAS and Jennifer Prairie
This thesis is committed to award-winning science fiction author Octavia Butler’s novel Wild Seed, the first in a series of novels
about the rise of a race of psychic humans and their battle with a microbial alien invasion. Published in 1980, Wild Seed
details the origin story of this psychic race, how they were brought together and bred by a being who consumes minds and
possesses bodies, and how one woman, having an ability that “shapeshifting” only begins to describe, defies his vision and
control. My work focuses on this woman, named Anyanwu. My writing explores gender, race, identity, and the relationship
between these and Anyanwu’s psychic ability, body, and behavior. Specifically, my work is guided by Hortense J. Spillers’ idea
of “ungendering.” My purpose is to answer the question, “What is ungendering?” and understand Anyanwu as a model of
womanhood.
Understanding the formation of marine snow aggregates can provide insight into the carbon cycle, the biological pump, and
other ocean processes. Marine snow aggregates, particles that form in the surface ocean from phytoplankton and other organic
and inorganic matter, are one of the vehicles responsible for the flux of carbon from the surface ocean to greater depths.
One factor which is necessary in understanding the role of marine snow aggregates in the ocean is the rate at which they
form. Previous studies suggest that marine snow aggregate formation rate depends upon the size and concentration of the
particles, the probability that they will stick together, the species composition and physiological state of phytoplankton, and
the presence of TEP (transparent exopolymer particles). The objective for this study is to determine how the formation rate
of marine snow aggregates is affected by the growth phase of phytoplankton from which they are formed. Three cultures of
Thalassiosira weissflogii, a marine diatom, were stopped at different times representing three separate phytoplankton growth
phases. For each culture, a rotating cylindrical tank was used to induce aggregate formation. The rotating tanks were stopped
every twenty minutes for a complete duration of eighty minutes. Cell counts were conducted at each interval to quantify how
particle size and particle concentration changed over time. Results showed a small yet insignificant increase in particle size and
decrease in particle concentration indicating aggregate formation. In future experiments, a Coulter Counter will be used so
that more particles can be quantified per time point.
19
Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
CATMAN: CubeSat Approach to Mobile Ad Hoc Networking
MICHAEL DOYLE, Chris Hodge, Kanan Choquette, Quinn Pratt, Setareh Lotfi and Kathleen Kramer and James
Gilb
This project focuses on presenting and verifying the construction and operation of a mobile ad hoc networking module
relevant to the CubeSat community. This module will initialize and maintain a deformable network of CubeSats by acquiring
and distributing data amongst the mesh participants. This maintenance will rely on radiofrequency communication in the 2.4
GHz range to share salient information. The data being distributed amongst nodes includes battery life, GPS, accelerometer,
magnetometer and gyroscope readings, as well as number of nodes and overall topology. This type of mobile electronic-sensing
network could be used for various aerospace applications such as the formation of a synthetic aperture or extend the range of
existing space-network systems. It will also adhere to the published CubeSat form factor of a 1U CubeSat and will be outfitted
with realistic power and mechanical peripherals. Thus far there is a methodology to programmatically acquire data from
each of the aforementioned sensors. Additionally, there is a physical model of the CubeSat; the team is in the stage of system
integration. Ultimately this module will be a proof-of-concept device that exhibits a mesh network through four CubeSats on
the scale of one-mile radius per node.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Preferential Treatment: a Study on U.S. Policy Towards Refugees
DANTE ENRIQUEZ and James Williams
President Donald Trump has made it clear that the current administration will drastically reduce the number of refugees
admitted into the United States. Further comments by President Trump have implied that the United States will give
preferential status to Christian refugees who are minorities in their state, leading many people opposing President Trump to
claim that he is preferring the Christian religion over others and thus violating the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The current political climate has led me to ask if there has been or currently is a significant difference in U.S. policy towards
certain groups of refugees, focusing on Somali, Sudanese, and Syrian refugees. My research consists of examining U.S.
policy towards refugee resettlement from 1975 to the present, including laws, executive orders, and official statements made
by policy-makers in the United States. I also examine scholarly work to determine if the academic community has seen a
significant difference in the acceptance of different refugee communities. Finally, I interviewed thirty individuals in the San
Diego refugee community to better understand their individual experiences and determine if there is at least a perceived
difference in how U.S. policies affected the specific groups. There is a perceived difference in U.S. policy towards certain
groups of refugees, primarily due to the rhetoric of the President, that then effects the number of refugees allowed in. I have
found that the rhetoric is influenced by the lobbying of interest groups, some of which lobby from the background of a
specific religion.
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UC Forums
highlights the intersection of this debate with larger questions surrounding the appropriate roles for women and men in a
rapidly industrializing world. Analysis of this data illuminates the failures of “separate spheres,” a theory that argues social
interactions during this time period were rigidly separated into the male public space and female private arena of the home, as
a conceptual tool.
U.S. Foreign Policy: The Asian Pivot and Policy Towards the South China Sea
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
DAVID SHANNON and Vidya Nadkarni
My topic is to examine the current United States policy towards China, specifically in the South China Sea, and what course
of action the United States should take in the future. Although the South China Sea might seem relatively insignificant to the
overall foreign policy of the United States, it is an important testing ground for how much the Chinese are willing to push and
how much the United States is willing to push back. One of Obama’s core goals was to invoke a pivot away from European
and Middle Eastern focus and place the focus on the Pacific, and the nations that reside in and around this area, termed the
“Asian Pivot.” With the fall of the Soviet Union many historians, political scientists, and those that study international relations
have been struggling to define the new world order without the bipolar power view that came during the Cold War. With
the rise of China, the South China Sea will be the next turning point in the global power structure. How the United States
approaches this topic will set a clear and potentially dangerous precedent for how American and Chinese relations, specifically
the balance of power, will unfold in the twenty-first century.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Is Being Wicked the Same as Having Wickedness? A Dialogue on Human Nature
between Wicked, Frankenstein, and Rousseau?s Second Discourse
EMILY BEZOLD and Ivan Ortiz
This thesis revolves around the characters of Elphaba, from the musical Wicked, and the Monster, from Mary Shelley?s
Frankenstein. In the comparison of these two verdant characters I seek to analyze their psychological development, starting
from their conceptions, to their final moments in their respective stories. I will focus on the parallels between their relations
with their fathers, other social connects they may or may not make, and their interaction within the wider social-political
world of their stories. In this I seek to explain how Elphaba and the Monster come to represent two different types of man,
according to Jean Jacque Rousseau?s Second Discourse, or A Discourse on the Inequality Among Men. Further, I seek to
analyze the different types of man they come to represent as a larger criticism on the societies and times of the periods in
which both stories were first published. Some of the anxieties and issues these characters represent within their time periods
include: women?s rights, the marginalized and outcasted in society, racism and colonization, and problems with technology
and progress.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
“But then we’ll be, as Masons free, to think, and speak, and reason”: Women and
American Freemasonry, 1778-1850
Athletes Taking the Lead on Conversations of Racial Inequality
FIONA J. MURPHY and David Sullivan
This paper explores how athletes use their high-profile status as subjects of media coverage to affect the national conversation
about racial inequality in America. While sports is often viewed as a social realm in which politics has no place, the unique
relationship sports icons have with sports fans may make star athletes especially potent figures among those who challenge the
dominant social order. This paper uses media coverage of the University of Missouri football team’s “strike” and quarterback
Colin Kaepernick’s protest during the national anthem before NFL games as case studies with dirt theory as a theoretical
framework to examine how the sports hero and anti-hero are ideological constructs.
33
Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Suppressor of IKK epsilon (SIKE) links the cytoskeleton to innate immune signaling
pathways
HALIE SONNENSCHEIN, FRANK SLYKAS, Kenneth Lawrence and Jessica Bell
The innate immune system rapidly responds to challenges by pathogens via activation of an inflammatory response. As a
convergence point for multiple inflammatory and anti-viral signaling pathways, the TANK binding kinase 1 (TBK1) serves
as a catalytic hub to initiate host defenses. The suppressor of IKK epsilon (SIKE) is a newly identified TBK1 substrate.
The goal of this project was to identify the function of SIKE within the host’s anti-viral response. Co-immunoprecipitation
? tandem MS/MS analyses of the SIKE interaction network identified several interactions with cytoskeletal components.
Immunofluorescence assays of endogenous SIKE with cytoskeletal markers and colocalization analyses indicated that SIKE
colocalized with tubulin, actin, and alpha-actinin. Reciprocal immunoprecipitation (RcIPs) studies did not confirm the
SIKE:actin interaction. The SIKE:tubulin and SIKE:alpha-actinin interaction were detected by RcIPs. The SIKE:tubulin
interaction appeared enhanced upon stimulation with dsRNA, a mimic of viral infection. This enhancement was not observed
in the SIKE:alpha-actinin interaction. Whether the SIKE:tubulin and SIKE:alpha-actinin interaction were direct or indirect
could not be determined by RcIPs. In vitro immunoprecipitation assays mapped direct interactions between SIKE:tubulin
and SIKE:alpha-actinin. Assays employed purified cytoskeletal proteins and full-length (residues 1-207) of a 6x-His-tagged
SIKE construct. The SIKE:tubulin In vitro immunoprecipitations utilized monomeric tubulin. A SIKE:lysozyme In vitro
immunoprecipitation was used to control for non-specific binding to SIKE. Together these studies establish an interaction
between SIKE and cytoskeletal proteins that may provide a direct link between innate immune signaling and cytoskeletal
components. This work was supported by NIH grant R21AI107447.
EMMA DOOLITTLE and Evelyn Kirkley
Freemasonry is one of the longest enduring secret societies in existence, promoting the values of brotherhood, philanthropy,
and filial piety. Separate from the home as a space for the domestic refinement of virtue, early American Masonic lodges
in the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries functioned as social and intellectual bodies, offering companionship
and the propagation of knowledge for men. Though many scholars acknowledge that the exclusion of women played an
important role in the expansion and evolution of the fraternity in the United States, neither the rationales justifying female
exclusion nor the implications of such arguments on Freemasonry’s organizational development have been explored in depth.
Examining guidebooks and periodicals written by Freemasons as well as published works by prominent American women
advocating for their right to learn and discussing Enlightenment ideals through membership in Masonic lodges, this study
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Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Computational Analysis of CHP-NHE Protein-Protein Interaction
The Effects of Uniform Color on Sports Performance in the NCAA National
Basketball Tournament
Isaac Bell, Joachim Latzer and Joseph Provost
The Sodium Hydrogen Exchanger (NHE1) is an ATP independent membrane transporter that exchanges an intracellular
proton for an extracellular sodium ion. NHE1 plays a critical role interacting with proteins on the leading edge of migrating
proteins controlling directed cell motility. Regulation of NHE1 is complex. Two NHE1 binding proteins whose roles are not
fully clear are the calcineurin homologous protein isoforms 1 and 2 (CHP1 and CHP2). Because CHP2 is primarily expressed
in gut and transformed tumor cells, the interaction between CHP and NHE is a potential anticancer target. In order to quantify
the interaction between the CHP1-NHE and the CHP2-NHE Circular Dichroism (CD) wavelength scan of each protein was
determined to identify the helical nature of the protein; CHP1 with 51.60% helical structure, CHP2 with a 49.74% helical
structure, and NHE1 with a 40.91% helical structure in the CBD. We determine the Van ‘t Hoff enthalpy and entropy of
unfolding to estimate the binding constant of protein interaction for CHP1-NHE1 and CHP2-NHE1. From the experimental
data collected, the theoretical temperature at which each construct denatures; for both the CHP2-NHE construct and CHP1NHE construct were inputed into a Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS). Results from the
LAMMPS. In order to generate specific interactions in the binding and unbinding in each of the two CHP isoforms and NHE.
This work will help predict the binding mechanism of CHP-NHE1 interaction to identify potential therapeutic targets blocking
CHP2 but not CHP1 from NHE1.
JULIANA LUCENA, Nergis Akkaya, and Nadav Goldschmied
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
KATHRYN GHIORSO and Jennifer Prairie
Uniform color may enhance sports performance and the probability of winning (Hill & Barton, 2005). The current
investigation aimed to study the effect of uniform color on basketball game outcome. Scores from 220 NCAA National
Basketball Tournament games (2012-2016 seasons) played all in neutral locations were analyzed using a series of chi-square
tests. The higher-ranked teams always wore white uniforms while the lower ranked teams wore either red, blue, or black
uniforms. The results showed that non-white uniform color had no significant effect on underdog teams winning games.
Additionally, neither a big nor small difference in ranking between the teams produced a significant effect on game outcome.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
The Effects of Density Gradients on Zooplankton Swimming Behavior
Organic moieties called dipyrromethenes have become increasingly popular as donors to metal ions. We have synthesized a
series of new organic molecules where we have combined the dipyrromethene portion to various organic moieties such as
naphthalenes and biphenyls. Through the electron sharing between these organic molecules and metal centers, the organic
molecules have been complexed to metal ions such as cobalt and copper. These complexes will be characterized by a
combination of elemental analysis, UV-vis spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography. The ability of the complexes to form more
complicated supramolecular arrays will be determined with possible applications of metal frameworks being used in hydrogen
storage in fuel cells. Additional complexes will be synthesized and analyzed based on these results.
Zooplankton play an important role in marine ecosystems as the primary grazers of phytoplankton, resulting in the
transport of carbon to higher trophic levels. Copepods, the most common type of multicellular zooplankton in the ocean,
feed on phytoplankton at the surface and produce waste at depth. This daily vertical movement through the water column
often requires them to move through density gradients, or pycnoclines. To understand the functional role of zooplankton,
it is critical to study their swimming behavior, which may be directly affected by many environmental factors including
pycnoclines. This experiment seeks to assess and quantify the effects of these density gradients on copepod vertical movement
and swimming behavior. Copepods were collected in situ and starved for 24 hours before being used for foraging experiments.
Copepods were placed in a tank either with or without a density gradient. Two cameras were positioned perpendicularly to the
tank to allow for 3D observation of copepod swimming tracks. Image analysis using Matlab quantified the swimming velocity,
turning rate, and vertical distribution of the copepods for each different treatment. Here, we will present preliminary results
demonstrating how copepod swimming behavior characteristics and distributions are affected by the presence or absence of a
density gradient. Through gaining a comprehensive understanding of copepod vertical movement and swimming behavior in
varying pycnoclines, we hope to better understand zooplankton’s role as primary grazers and carbon transporters within the
marine ecosystem.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
More Than Just Money: : A Comprehensive Excavation and Examination of Roman
Empire Era Coins [27 B.C.E. - 476 C.E.]
Regulatory and Human Health Analysis of the Libby Amphiboles, Libby, Montana
The Synthesis of Novel Metal Complexes Formed from Dipyrromethene Ligands
NICK DICHRISTOFANO, JESSICA POLAK and Mitchell Malachowski
JOHN WARREN and Ryan Abrecht
This research involves Roman era coins, used mainly for political propaganda from 27 B.C.E. to 476 C.E. The goal is to show
that although coins may appear as insignificant, small-denomination economic means, they have traditionally served a variety
of purposes since antiquity. Twenty coins will be analyzed and discussed throughout this research and backed with secondary
sources from experts in the field. The central question is: why was it important for Emperors to convey political messages on
these coins? Was it because coins were items used everyday by the common citizen? Or because of the sheer quantities and
vast circulation radius throughout the Roman Empire? Because coins were a major political, social, and economic aspect of
everyday life in the Roman Empire, there were clearly political propaganda ambitions of the reigning administrative entity,
which can be observed through images, Latin expressions, and inscriptions found on coins of antiquity.
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KAYLEE LOOPER and Eric Cathcart
Vermiculite is a commonly used in construction, gardening, and packaging mineral that often contains Asbestiform minerals
and structures. However, Vermiculite is not a regulated Asbestiform mineral. This study examines the properties, forms, and
health effects of asbestiforming minerals found in the Libby, Montana Vermiculite deposits. Additionally, this study identifies
the different regulations of asbestos and their importance for maintaining public health. Multiple studies regarding the health
effects of the Libby, Montana deposits have been conducted and although these minerals are shown to result in asbestosrelated diseases (e.g. asbestosis and mesothelioma), there are no policies in place to regulate the use of such minerals. The
town of Libby, Montana has faced significant health impacts due to the mining of vermiculite. This study attempts to analyze
how regulatory requirements are used to mitigate and monitor the use and effects of asbestos, in order to understand how this
knowledge could be implemented for other hazardous materials.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
51
Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
San Diego Office of the Public Defender: The Investigative Internship Program
Is Basal Metabolic Rate in Eared Grebes Due to the Metabolic Intensity of Critical
Tissues?
KARSEN MELGARD, KENDALL WEAVER and Nadav Goldschmied
The San Diego Office of the Public Defender offers undergraduate students a chance to learn about and gain insight on the
law through their Investigative Internship Program. The program is designed to place students at various offices throughout
San Diego depending on the areas of defense law that the students are most interested in, such as low-profile misdemeanor
crimes or higher profile felonies. The Office of the Alternate Public Defender and the Multiple Conflicts Office typically handle
high-profile cases, which provide their interns with a unique, exciting, and invaluable experience working with attorneys,
investigators, and clients. Interns within the program are responsible for the gathering and consolidating of information related
to open cases, aiding attorneys in obtaining court records, attending hearings, assisting investigators in interviewing witnesses,
providing feedback and insight during round table meetings, answering phone calls from clients, inmates, witnesses, and
attorneys, collecting important and relevant documents, and developing legal memos. Through participating in these tasks,
interns gain first-hand experience from their contributions to open cases from a file in the office to a hearing in the courthouse
and enhance their understanding of the criminal justice system as a whole.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Morphological, Geographic, and Ecological Correlates of Population Structure in the
Western Milkvetch Seed Beetle
KINANA MCDANIEL and Geoffrey Morse
The total species diversity of insects has been estimated at over one quarter of the entire global macroscopic species diversity.
Phytophagous (plant-feeding) insects have been used to study determinants of the evolutionary and ecological history of
population differentiation leading to speciation in an ongoing effort to understand the drivers of biodiversification. Speciation
is often attributed to association with a host plant in phytophagous insects, driving divergence when defensive barriers of
physical or biochemical toxicity develop in a host plant to discourage insects, followed by the development of resistance
in the insect and subsequent accumulation of genetic differences between populations. Alternatively, a widespread species
may experience isolation effects through decreased contact over distance or through separation of populations by physical
barriers in the landscape. The decreased ability of different populations to interbreed allows genetic differences to accumulate
over time so that two populations can evolve into different species. A study of the Western Milkvetch Seed Beetle takes into
consideration both of these mechanisms by reconstructing the phylogeny and population genetics of this species, found
in association with numerous host plants and distributed across a wide range of known geographic boundaries of the
Intermountain West. Mitochondrial DNA sequence data suggests a surprising amount of genetic diversity within this species,
strongly supporting a case for cryptic speciation, supporting a magnifying role between host plant association and geography.
64 Cr e at i v e c o l l a b o rat i o n s
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LEIGH SEWALL, STEPHANIE LOW, JONINA CAPINO, and Hugh Ellis
The Eared Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis), is a diving waterfowl found throughout Western North America (Cullen et al., 1999).
Eared Grebes spend roughly 9-10 months of the year flightless during long sedentary periods, which are punctuated by
long-distance migrations. At each staging site, Eared Grebes undergo a change in body composition involving both atrophy
and hypertrophy of specific tissues and organs, yet their basal metabolic rate (BMR) remains constant throughout these
changes (Ellis and Jehl, 2003 and unpublished). We suspect that it is the metabolic intensity of these important organs, rather
than their size, that affects BMR. Our research specifically examined the enzyme activity of citrate synthase (CS) and pyruvate
kinase (PK). CS is a rate-limiting enzyme in the Krebs Cycle, and therefore it is important in aerobic metabolism and an
indicator of a tissue’s maximal oxidative capacity (Vezina and Williams, 2005). PK, which catalyzes the final reaction step in
the glycolytic pathway to yield pyruvate, a molecule that can function in aerobic and anaerobic respiration, can be used as an
indicator of glycolytic activity within the cellular tissues (Bishop et al., 1995; Berg et al., 2002). We measured enzyme activity
spectrophotometrically and quantitatively analyzed the results. CS and PK both appear to be upregulated in pectoral tissues,
while CS is upregulated in the heart and PK is upregulated in the gastrocnemius prior to departure for migration. Further
research will continue to focus on the trends presented by CS and PK, as well as examining the trends in activity observed in
other critical metabolic enzymes.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Neighbors in the Midst of Abduction: An Assessment of United States- Mexico
Diplomatic Relations
LUCERO CHAVEZ and Emily Edmonds-Poli
Extradition treaties are an effective tool used by foreign governments to ensure that the transfer and prosecution of private
citizens are lawful whilst keeping the integrity of national sovereignty intact. Given the ever-changing contexts in which
extradition is enforced, amending these treaties is an ongoing process between the United States and other nations in order
to foster greater international cooperation and the effective accomplishment of domestic and foreign policy goals against
crime. Nevertheless, despite the existing extradition treaties, the United States has committed violations that have rendered
its position in those treaties questionable. Perhaps the most explicit demonstrations of the United States’ non-compliance
in treaties are trans-border abductions, which fall beyond the existing discourse on extradition treaties. “Abduction” in
the general sense refers to irregular means of capturing fugitives, such as simply entering a foreign country and essentially
kidnapping individuals. I am looking primarily at the role of the United States in its violations of extradition treaties with
Mexico, which seems incongruent with the extensive cooperation between the two countries. I will investigate these changes
by looking into how diplomatic relations between the United States and Mexico have or have not changed as a result of
extradition violations. Ultimately, I also hope to apply my findings at an international level and assess what these violations
mean for other violations of the U.S.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
The Effect of Integration: A Study of Diversity on Economic Indicators
In the Spirit of the Games?: Olympic Values and Their Effect on the Host-Nation
Selection Process
LUKE SCHLEIER and Alan Gin
This paper examines the effect of diversity, measured by the dissimilarity index, on different economic indicators including
median income and median home prices. This work aims to show that there is a positive economic impact on the economy
due to integrating and creating more diverse communities. Previous work shows that there is a positive impact of diversity
on economic indicators such as wages, rent, and production but previous studies do not look at the effect on income, house
prices, and unemployment. This study looks at cities across the Unites States in 2010 using census data and measures the
effect of diversity on economic indicators using different forms of ordinary least squares regressions. The paper finds different
economic indicators are affected by changes in the level of diversity in the area.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Arming America ? The Solution or the Problem?
MASON MANMANO and Alyson Ma
The purpose of this research is to determine the effectiveness of gun control policy on reducing violent crime. In order to
measure this, the model will be accounting for pertinent socioeconomic factors coupled with an index created by the Open
Society Institute’s Center on Crime, Communities and Culture that essentially measures how strict or lenient gun control laws
are in a particular state. There have been many studies in the past that have attempted to explain this same question, but there
were severe issues with their model that delegitimized the interpretation of their empirical findings. This is where the gap in
the current research lies and why the findings of this model have the potential to create major implications in the future of gun
control legislation. By identifying the strengths and shortcomings of the lawmaking process’ ability to create legislation that
effectively prevents violent crime, one can urge their democratically-elected representatives to take these results into account.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
The Academic Progress Rating: An Analysis of Academic Resource Spending on
Student Athletes
MATTHEW JACOBS and Alyson Ma
This paper will discover the effects of athletic department spending, as well as other factors, on the academic performance
of student athletes. It will test these independent variables on a new way to track academic performance of student athletes,
the Academic Progress Rating (APR), which was introduced in 2003. The results are expected to show an increase of APR
in relation to spending and other institutional level factors. This study will illuminate whether the NCAA’s new way to track
student athletes is more accurate than past policies as well as how specific institutional influences assist or retract from student
athlete success in Division I Athletics.
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MEGAN GOODMAN and Emily Edmonds Poli
This research looks at the role of political values in the host nation selection process of the Olympic Games at all summer
and winter bids from 2008 to 2022. The International Olympic Committee claims to act as the Supreme Authority of the
Olympic Movement to bring forth cooperation, communication, and collaboration between all parties of the Olympic family.
In successful host nation bids, however, the values outlined in the Olympic Charter do not always complement the values
supported by the host nation. What guides the International Olympic Committee to its decisions is a space in the literature
of sports politics that should be filled, especially in terms of political ideologies of the represented nations and organizations.
Through process tracing, the relationship of the words used and the consistency and support of said Olympic values will be
examined in conjunction with the political ideologies of a host nation at the time of selection. Data will include all nations
involved in the candidature process from 2008 to 2022, official candidature documents from the International Olympic
Committee showing reasoning and rationale for selection, and any hidden agendas of political ideology under the rhetoric
of the International Olympic Committee documents, as well as other qualitative information. This thesis hopes to provide
evidence for whether the Olympics are capable of and have achieved the lofty aims of of the Olympic Movement through the
decisions and actions of the International Olympic Committee.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
Light-Dependent Endolysosomal Defects in a Photoreceptor Model of Alzheimer?s
Disease
MICHELLE SYDNEY SMITH and Adam Haberman
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive neuronal dysfunction and death. AD pathology
has been linked to the accumulation of amyloid and tau proteins. We have expressed amyloid-beta-42 in photoreceptors
to analyze cellular defects caused by amyloid accumulation. We find that exposure to light increases neurodegeneration in
amyloid-expressing photoreceptors. Light exposure normally induces endocytosis and lysosomal degradation of rhodopsin,
but rhodopsin accumulates in intracellular puncta in amyloid-expressing photoreceptors exposed to light. We propose
that photoreceptors are especially sensitive to endolysosomal defects when exposed to light due to bulk endocytosis of
rhodopsin. This characteristic of photoreceptors is relevant to understanding the more than 100 research articles that have
used photoreceptors to study models of neurodegenerative disease. To test this theory, we blocked the formation of rhodopsin
by raising flies without Vitamin A, which dramatically rescued photoreceptor degeneration. We are currently preparing
to block the formation of action potentials in amyloid-expressing photoreceptors by co-expressing an inward-rectifying
potassium channel; this will differentiate between degeneration caused by rhodopsin endocytosis and that caused by neuronal
activity. We are also characterizing the endolysosomal defect in amyloid-expressing photoreceptors to better understand
the mechanism that leads to protein accumulation. To identify the organelles containing rhodopsin accumulations, we are
performing colocalization studies using antibodies for endosomes, lysosomes, and autophagosomes.
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playing “numerous important functions” in adolescent development (Schwartz, 2014), meme sharing serves as a quintessential
21st-century way for friendships to blossom at a time when they matter more developmentally.
Effects of Renewable Energy on Economic Growth
MORGAN WHITE and Alyson Ma
My research explores how renewable energy affects economic growth in countries with varying levels of income. I hope to
demonstrate that countries that have grown economically help to influence developing countries to implement these important
projects. By proving this, countries can improve their carbon emissions, reduce reliance on foreign exports of energy, and drive
growth economically.
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Interaction of Multiple Memory Systems in the Rat
NICOLE REITZ, JON VINCZE, SAMANTHA CALAC, and Jena Hales
Multiple memory systems work in the brain to successfully form declarative and non-declarative long-term memories.
Although the hippocampus is critical for declarative memory formation, hippocampal-lesioned rats are often still able to learn
and reach control levels of performance over time on typically hippocampal-dependent tasks, including the Morris watermaze
(Morris & Frey, 1997; Hales et al., 2014). In order to examine how hippocampal-lesioned rats can still learn spatial memory
tasks, we developed a paradigm using the continuous alternating T-maze task. We hypothesize that hippocampal-lesioned rats
are gradually learning spatial memory tests using the striatum, the structure engaged in procedural learning. We designed our
study to probe two possibilities: 1) the striatum is compensating for the loss of the hippocampus or 2) the striatum is always
involved in learning at a steady rate, but is masked by the more efficient hippocampal-learning system. We will examine
these possibilities by analyzing c-Fos expression in the hippocampus, striatum, and anterior cingulate cortex to pinpoint
which structures the rats are using to complete this task. Additionally, we will analyze c-Fos expression using both manual
and automated techniques. First, we will count the c-Fos expressing cells manually in order to gain a base count. Second,
we will implement an automated method using ImageJ, a public-domain image processing program developed by the NIH.
By comparing the manual cell count to our automated method, we can start to remove the low reproducibility of manually
counting cells and establish objective standardization in order to expand the capacity of these quantifications.
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“Mom and dad don’t get it.”- Investigating the Meme-Based, Visual Vernacular of
21st Century Adolescents
OLIVIA GONZALEZ and Susannah Stern
Memes exemplify a complex and powerful emerging media genre that has pervaded online spaces. While memes have begun
to receive attention from scholars, little consideration has been paid to the motivations behind Internet users’ participation in
the genre. And virtually no attention has focused on youth meme participants. Moreover, given the often-humorous nature
of memes, they are commonly disregarded as meaningless sources of entertainment. Therefore, my study seeks to uncover
the motivations behind teenagers’ participation in a genre that is often discounted as “mundane” (Shifman & Kampf, 2015).
Specifically, it aims to understand why teenagers create, share, and seek out memes in their everyday lives. My analysis is
founded upon ongoing research conducted through qualitative interviews with teenagers residing in Southern California.
My research thus far leads me to believe that memes are not only a valuable genre of teen media production but also reflect
the evolution of modern communication practices. I have found that memes serve as a tool through which adolescents have
developed a highly unique and novel form of digitally-mediated communication. Furthermore, teenagers utilize the process
of sharing memes as a new means of communication within their interpersonal relationships. With interpersonal relationships
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Synthesis of Starch-Functionalized Dibromomaleimide for Peptide Delivery
PRAVEEN WICKREMASINGHE and Joan Schellinger, Peter M. Iovine
The pragmatic application of peptide therapeutics is a novel field, delegating advantageous characteristics such as high
specificity, low toxicity, and relatively high biocompatibility. While peptide-based therapeutics allocate a highly beneficial
mode of drug delivery, several debilitations exist, such as the enzymatic degradation of these prospective peptide-based drugs.
Studies have shown that covalent attachment of a saccharide will essentially allot an increased circulation half-life, solubility
of the peptides, and biocompatibility. Our group has synthesized a neoteric hybrid of biomaterials, which constituted of a
starch, a peptide, and a heterofunctionalized small molecule linker containing both dibromomaleimide and azide moieties.
Each respective portion of our target molecule will be prepared separately and will be conjugated through both thiol exchange
and a click reaction. In previous studies, conjugation of the starch to a tri-peptide as the initial step in the synthesis caused
challenges in NMR characterization analysis; the relatively prodigious size of the starch moiety, compared to the tri-peptide,
caused the saturation of NMR signals. Because of the aforementioned problem, the successful synthesis of the linker molecule
and its respective thiol exchange activity, as well as the starch-linker conjugates, was emulated via fluorine tagging and 19F
NMR analysis. Our prospective work includes the conjugation of a peptide to our starch-linker complex. We hope that final
molecule will find utility in the development of peptides as drugs and other drug delivery systems.
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NMR Structural Study of a DNA Duplex Containing Two Unnatural Base Pairs
WESTON PREISING, ROISIN O’BRIEN, and Tammy Dwyer
DNA is the genetic blueprint responsible for the traits of living organisms. The “genetic alphabet” consists of four molecules
called nucleobases, represented by the letters A, T, G, and C strung together in a “strand.”A DNA duplex consists of two
“strands” held together such that A is across from T and G across from C, referred to A-T and G-C “base pairs.” Recently, the
genetic alphabet or code has been expanded by synthetic biologists in an effort to unveil new insights to the machinery of
DNA replication and potentially develop new medicines to cure diseases like HIV. The new unnatural base pair 5SICS-NaM is
the first to be stably replicated by a semi-synthetic E. Coli. organism. This project investigates a novel DNA duplex containing
two 5SICS-NaM pairs arranged side-by-side and represents the first example of a stable duplex containing more than one
unnatural pair, using a technique called NMR spectroscopy. Thus far, NMR chemical shift assignments for this duplex have
been largely completed which provide some information as to the structural configuration of the base pairs. Preliminary
results indicate that one of the two adjacent 5SICS-NaM pairs is situated within the duplex, whereas the other may have the
5SICS base sterically pushed out of the duplex with its paired 5NaM base stacked quite normally. Further analysis of the data
should allow us to propose a more precise structure of the DNA duplex as well as provide insight into the versatility of DNA
replication machinery to recognize altered DNA structures.
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The Effect of Rapid Technological Growth on Income Inequality and Economic
Growth
Phosphorelay Pathway of Bacterium, Rhodospirillum centenum, Impacts Gene
Expression Related to Motility and Encystment
RYAN SALZ and Alyson Ma
SLOANE BOOTERBAUGH and Terry H. Bird
Throughout the world, countries differ greatly on their level of income distribution. According to the research on the
differences in income inequality, there is a general consensus that income inequality has an inverse relationship with economic
growth. I hope to analyze this relationship with more recent data and include technological growth as a key independent
variable. I hypothesize that the recent exponential increase in technological growth will partially offset the inverse relationship
between income inequality and economic growth.
Rhodospirillum centenum is a photosynthetic bacterium that is capable of adapting to numerous environments. If nutrients
are present and the bacterium is in a liquid medium it will use a polar flagellum to swim, whereas if it is on a solid medium
lateral flagella will be used to propel a type of swarming motility. If nutrients become exhausted, the bacterium will eject its
flagella and develop into a dormant cyst. Transitions to motile or cyst cell states are controlled by a phosphorelay signaling
pathway, which controls expression of genes required for locomotion or encystment. This pathway includes a putative
histidine kinase, Cyd2, that phosphorylates another protein, ChpT. ChpT then transfers the phosphate (and thus activates) the
transcription factor, CtrA, to ultimately effect gene expression. CtrA deletion strains have been compared to the wild type to
characterize phenotypic differences. We have observed that the ctrA knockout strain exhibits an increased tendency to form
cysts that is concomitant with impaired motility. A computer program was used to scan the R. centenum genome to identify
potential CtrA binding sites that may be used to influence the expression of nearby genes. We have begun a study that uses
qPCR to determine whether these genes exhibit different expression profiles in ctrA mutant and wild type strains.
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Microscale Force Response and Morphology of Tunable Co-polymerized
Cytoskeleton Networks
SHEA RICKETTS, Vikrant Yadav, Jennifer L. Ross and Rae Anderson
The cytoskeleton is largely comprised of actin and microtubules that entangle and crosslink to form complex networks
and structures, giving rise to nonlinear multifunctional mechanics in cells. The relative concentrations of semiflexible actin
filaments and rigid microtubules tune cytoskeleton function, allowing cells to move and divide while maintaining rigidity
and resilience. To elucidate this complex tunability, we create in vitro composites of co-polymerized actin and microtubules
with actin:microtubule molar ratios of 0:1-1:0. We use optical tweezers and confocal microscopy to characterize the nonlinear
microscale force response and morphology of the composites. We optically drag a microsphere 30 um through varying actinmicrotubule networks at 10 um/s and 20 um/s and measure the force the networks exerts to resist the strain and the force
relaxation following strain. We use dual-color confocal microscopy to image distinctly-labeled filaments in the networks and
characterize the integration of actin and microtubules, network connectivity, and filament rigidity. We find that increasing
the fraction of microtubules in networks non-monotonically increases elasticity and stiffness and hinders force relaxation by
suppressing network mobility and fluctuations.
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Changes in Topography of Sea Turtle Nesting Beach
SHELLEY MARTINEZ and Jennifer Prairie
In a four-week study, the change in slope of six different transects was measured on the sea turtle nesting beach of Mayto in
Jalisco, Mexico. Once all the data was obtained, some insight was gained on how the topography of the beach might change
over time. With added factors such as sea level rise, it is important to understand how those changes might affect the nesting
of sea turtles and their ability to thrive, considering all eight species are threatened or endangered. It was found that there
was a significant increase in available nesting habitat for sea turtles on the beach in Mayto in 2016 than there was in 2015. In
addition to this finding, by taking the IPCC prediction of a sea level rise of 0.6 meters in 100 years, it was concluded that there
would be a significant loss in modern available nesting beach habitat by the year 2100. With the continuation of conservation
efforts by the staff members at Campamento Tortuguero Mayto and an avoidance of development around the nesting area, the
four sea turtle species that nest in Mayto will have a better chance of survival despite the adverse effects of climate change.
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Banning the Burqa
STEPHEN HEMMERSMEIER and Kathryn Statler
There is no doubt that the world has seen many terrorist attacks throughout the world in the last few years, especially in
Europe. However, the movement to ban the burqa throughout the world is not a novel idea. Turkey originally banned the
burqa in public spaces in 1923. France has also had movements over the last several decades to ban the burqa. France’s long
colonial history with majority-Muslim countries like Algeria has greatly shaped their interaction with Muslim people living in
France. The banning of the burqa has come from France and other countries in the EU under the guise of encouraging public
order. The European Court on Human Rights ruled in 2014 that France did have a right to regulate what people wore on the
basis of public order. Yet in 2016 when mayors of Southern French towns such as Nice tried to ban the Burkini, the French
court ruled that this was a violation of people’s rights even though it was still being claimed under public order. Turkey has
also rolled back its ban on the burqa in the last several years and only required a few government sectors to continue with the
ban. The question that this paper seeks to answer is why does France seek greater restrictions on the burqa when Turkey has
rolled back its policies, and do these policies really have an effect on terrorism?
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Calcineurin Homologous Protein Expression Drives Na+/H+ Exchanger 1 Dependent
Tumor Survival Under Serum Deprivation
WAYNE T. COTTLE and Joseph Provost
The Sodium Hydrogen Exchanger Isoform 1 (NHE1) is a transmembrane proton pump vital in maintaining pH homeostasis.
During tumor development, cancer cells experience an acidic and serum-deprived microenvironment. To survive, cells must
engage regulatory proteins like NHE1 to prevent acidosis. Calcineurin Homologous Proteins 1 and 2 (CHP1/2) are cofactors
which upregulate NHE1. CHP1 is an isoform required for basal NHE1 activity and CHP2 further augments NHE1 activity.
CHP2 binds to a common CHP binding site but is only shown to be expressed in malignant tissues. Data from our lab suggest
that both NHE1 and CHP2 play a significant role in pHi homeostasis maintenance under serum deprivation and hypoxia.
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Though proton transport is effected by CHP2 expression, it’s effect on proton transport kinetics is still unclear. We will
measure the rate of pHi recovery after acid load. Recovery measured in serum deprivation and hypoxia will determine the
effect of the tumor microenvironment on proton transport kinetics. We will then quantify the expression change of NHE1,
CHP1, and CHP2 using qPCR. Serum deprivation in H1299 lung cells had no significant effect on gene expression of NHE1,
decreased CHP1 expression by 0.4 fold (n=3), and increased CHP2 expression. CHP2 and NHE expression in paired diseased
and adjacent normal tissue is also examined. Understanding the expression levels of NHE1, CHP1, and CHP2 along with their
cellular effects will help characterize the mechanism governing nascent tumor survival and will aid in the development of
treatment modalities for non-small cell lung cancer.
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The Island of Misfit Toys: A Genre Analysis of The Perks of Being a Wallflower
YASAMIN (YASI) AGAHNIA and David Sullivan
This paper explores how popular American films might contribute to public discourse about contemporary social issues
while challenging some conventions of the popular Hollywood movie. The most notable convention in this analysis is the
expectation of a happy ending. A disruption of this convention would suggest that audiences would have to fill in the film’s
meaning through lived experience and extra-textual discourses. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, released in 2012, serves
as textual material for this analysis. This film addresses, especially for teens and young adults, non-heterosexual identities
outside the mainstream of popular media; occurs at a time when the politics of sexual orientation are being played out in
matters of public policy (e.g., “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” gay marriage, sexual discrimination hate laws and challenges to them,
rights of transgender people, etc.); and ends ambiguously, with the audience left feeling uncertain about what happens to the
“outsiders” featured as the story’s chief characters. This study applies ritual genre analysis and Burke’s dramatistic perspective,
emphasizing representative anecdote, to examine how The Perks of Being a Wallflower contributes to public discourse by
encouraging audiences to consider issues of sexual orientation “outside” of Hollywood conventions of normality.
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UniMarket : An e-Market Place for University Students
ERIN MCDONALD, STEN GOLDS, HAYDEN CLEVENGER, KATIE LEVY and Saturnino Garcia
Many university students have very little time and money, which makes buying school necessities, like textbooks, and hiring
tutors quite difficult. On the other hand, those same students have those same products but no outlet to communicate and
share them in a safe and easy channel. UniMarket provides a forum for students at a university to allow for the sale of products
like textbooks, tutoring, event tickets, study guides, furniture, and more. UniMarket will provide the ease-of-use of existing
services such as Craigslist and OfferUp but will improve safety by limiting the community to those with a valid university
email account. Once connected to UniMarket, you will see all posts made by users with your same email domain name. There
will be a feed of posts which you can browse by category, or filter using a search bar. Posting will be as simple as taking some
pictures, writing a description, and setting your price. Each account will have a space to manage your posts, saved posts, alerts
about saved searches, and to message other users. Our product will encompass Web, iPhone, and Android platforms so you’re
able to use it on all your devices!
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Project Pulse: Event Detection using Live Data
ALEX CAMERON, ELIJAH GRADY, STRATUMPOINT INC, and Saturnino Garcia
People today are generating more recordable data than ever before. With the increasing popularity of social media, wearable
technologies, and the ever-growing amount of apps on the Apple Store and Google Play, the potential amount of useful and
analyzable data sources is growing rapidly. Many of these data sources are non-traditional and remain untapped, and the aim
of our project is to find a way to utilize and learn from this plentiful data. The goal of Project Pulse is to collect and analyze
non-traditional data sources in order to detect specific worldwide events. Working with Stratum Point Inc., we developed a
proprietary algorithm for collecting, processing, analyzing, and contextualizing the data generated from these sources. This
algorithm was implemented into a standalone program that provides functionality by itself, or that can be used as a library for
other applications.
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The Unnecessary Ultimatum: an Examination of the Atomic Bombings and the
Surrender of Imperial Japan
COLE KUCERA and Kathryn Statler
Few historical topics garner more attention, and evoke more fervent emotions, than the discussion about deploying nuclear
bombs against Japan in World War II. The objective of this paper is to sidestep the mire of morality and delve deeply into the
facts surrounding the decision to drop the bombs, and the end of World War II in the Pacific. Primary goals in the atomic
portion of the paper include: challenging the assumption that the atomic bombs led to the surrender of the Japanese Empire
by reassessing the evidence and validity surrounding that claim and investigating ulterior motives for utilizing nuclear bombs
against Japan. Furthermore, the sections about war in the Pacific theater involve analyzing the state of war in the Pacific from
the summer of 1944 to the summer of 1945, revealing how the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Japanese Empire
planned on closing the war, and discussing what really led to the end of World War Two if the atomic bombs failed to achieve
that objective. It is this author’s assertion that the primary accounts of leaders involved, statistics, and military reports all
confirm the theory that the atomic bombs did not induce Japan’s capitulation. Instead, the Soviet declaration of war against
the Japanese caused them to concede. Additionally, this paper argues that, regardless of moral justifications, the atomic bombs
were certainly unjustifiable militarily.
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The Role of Student Financial Aid on Economic Crime on College Campuses
GREGORY DREYFUS, Tim Berend and Candice Price
Student debt is proliferating throughout society. Our study seeks to understand the impact that student debt has on economic
crime at college campuses. Using data acquired from students at the University of San Diego, along with numerous of
statistical methods, the role of debt in the decision to commit an economically motivated crime is examined. This study aims
to discover if students with large amounts of debt view economic crime as a solution. The decision to commit crime is based
not only on cost-benefit analysis, but also on the perceived risk of being caught and the expected punishments if caught.
Personal risk tolerance, financial status and demographic background are key motivators. The hypothesized effect is a positive
relationship between student debt and economic crime. Along the way, we gain insight into the challenges of collecting
primary data; surveying methods and data collection have become one of the largest barriers in new research fields. Therefore,
the study also looks at the difficulties in collecting new data.
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Computational Modeling of Superdegeneracy
Climate Change’s Impact On Fisheries Management
MICHAEL POYATT and Daniel Sheehan
KATHERINE MACDOUGALL and Michel Boudrais
Recent study in statistical mechanics has shown new behavior regarding particles in systems with high degeneracy, called
superdegeneracy. These particles have a greater probability of naturally congregating at higher energy levels. This is unlike
normal degeneracy in, for example, a hydrogen atom where the electron has a small number of places it can exist in the S,
P, D and F orbitals (their degeneracy). This limited number of places is not enough to outweigh the Boltzmann factor and
the electron will likely remain in the lowest energy level at room temperature. In superdegeneracy, there are enough states
in which the particle can exist at higher energies to balance out the Boltzmann factor. Based on the probabilistic nature
of this theory it is important to simulate particles randomly moving through systems, tweaking parameters to see at what
point the degeneracy becomes significant enough for the particles to congregate at higher energy levels. We have created a
computational model that allows us to simulate such a system, with the results of these simulations possibly providing further
justification to the new concept of superdegeneracy
Climate change is threatening humans and the marine environment, in order to maintain sustainable marine ecosystems
dramatic changes must be made when it comes to fisheries management and practices. This presentation will briefly explain
background information on the causes of climate change. From there I will discuss the effects that climate change is having
on the ocean and marine environments. These effects are things such as; warming ocean temperatures, change in marine
species distributions, decrease in biodiversity of marine species, and coral bleaching. In addition to the effects on the marine
environment I will touch upon the effects the changes in the environment have on fisheries. Furthermore I will discuss
various methodologies of fisheries management and how these systems affect the marine environment. I will discuss changes
in thought that must be addressed in order to maintain sustainable fisheries management in the face of climate change.
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Hearing Variability in Pinnipeds
Progress towards the development of novel nucleic acid-based therapeutics.
ANDREW SMITH, Yonatan Kebede, Gaston Moorhead, Daniel Ghebreigziabher, Raymond Huang and Anthony
Bell
The objective of this study is to evaluate the viability of using intramolecular four-way junctions (4WJs) as therapeutic
inhibitors against the DNA-binding cytokine, High Mobility Group B1 (HMGB1). Reports suggest HMGB1 should be
considered a lupus biomarker because the protein is linked with several key stages of pathogenesis. The strategy to use 4WJs
to target HMGB1 is grounded in classic in vitro studies that show HMGB1 binds to cruciform/bent DNA with a very high
affinity. Our initial studies focus on investigating the nuclease stability of 4WJs. Three 4WJs are currently being evaluated;
two 4WJs referred to as i-J1 and J4 are composed of natural DNA with thymine-thymine end caps. The final 4WJ referred to
as tDNA is composed DNA with thiol linkages vs. phosphate bonds. The presence of end caps in i-J1 and J4 are intended to
enhance nuclease stability by preventing favorable contacts with nucleases and end fraying. The thiol linkages in tDNA are
known to enhance stability because these bonds are not recognized by nucleases. Nuclease digestion assays are conducted
at 20oand 37oC using nucleases that digest double-stranded DNA (i.e. DNase I, Exo, and Exo III) and single-stranded DNA
(i.e. Exo V and T5 Exo). Our preliminary reports show that as expected the presence of thymine end-caps and thiol linkages
enhance the relative nuclease resistance of intramolecular 4WJs vs. unmodified DNA 4WJs.
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LAUREN ROBERTS and Jane Friedman
This research subject begins with the Four Color Conjecture which dates back to 1852 and has been the focus of research for
many mathematicians. The Four Color Conjecture is a graph theory problem that proposes that every map can be colored
using only four colors with no two of the same colors adjacent. The quest for a counterexample to the conjecture is what
lead to the definition of the snark graph; and although the conjecture was finally proven in 1976, research into snark graphs
concerning their properties has remained active. A snark is defined as a 3-regular, bridgeless graph, that is cyclically 4-edge
connected, in which the smallest cycle length (girth) is at least 5, and is not 3-edge colorable. This project further explores
what is known and unknown about snarks by using their history and by analyzing their properties using graph theory. Aside
from their simple definition, snark graphs are an important focus of research because their properties and structure are still
widely unknown. Snarks are also encountered in other important and difficult problems in graph theory.
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ALEXANDRIA BOKHART and Drew Talley
Behavioral psychophysics is a useful method for describing the variability of hearing among individuals in marine mammal
populations, specifically Pinnipeds._Through assessment of the variability of hearing within Pinnipeds further understanding
of basic biology and assessment of the effect of anthropogenic noise will be obtained. In this study, a literature review was
conducted on three scientific papers to assess the hearing variability within Pinnipeds based on sex, age and species.
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Octopamine regulation of sleep and arousal
ELEANOR BAUER, BRIDGET FITZGERALD, Divya Sitaraman
The Drosophila mushroom body (MB) is an associative learning network that is important for the control of sleep. We
have recently identified particular intrinsic MB Kenyon cell (KC) classes that regulate sleep through synaptic activation
of particular MB output neurons (MBONs) whose axons convey sleep control signals out of the MB to downstream target
regions. Specifically, we found that sleep-promoting KCs increase sleep by preferentially activating cholinergic sleeppromoting MBONs, while wake-promoting KCs decrease sleep by preferentially activating glutamatergic wake-promoting
MBONs. Further, we have identified specific neuromodulatory neurons that innervate the sleep and wake microcircuits and
likely underlie the persistence of sleep and wake states. Here we use a combination of genetic and physiological approaches
to identify two distinct classes of the wake-promoting neurons that release Octopamine, a biogenic amine homologous to
norepinephrine in humans. These studies will reveal the precise nature of connectivity and sleep regulation by Octopmaine
and provide a framework for the design of analogous experiments in understanding how norepinephrine controls sleep in
genetically tractable vertebrate model systems such as zebrafish and mice.
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Wound Inducible Transcript 3.0 (WIT3) is a minimally stable, helical protein
A Purposeful Life: Patterns, Perceptions and Profiles
MARIAM DAWOOD and Jessica Bell
MICHAEL GIRARD and Cid Martinez
Early wound contraction is facilitated by cell migration and is essential to the healing process. Cytoskeleton proteins provide
the underlying scaffold for this migratory system. WIT3 is a 253 amino acid protein that functions in fibroblast cell migration
and initiates rapid wound closure. Sequence analysis and model prediction suggest WIT3 contains helical structure that may
contribute to WIT3’s oligomerization. WIT3 shares ~50% sequence identity with an innate immune protein of unknown
function, Suppressor of IKKepsilon (SIKE), that also associates with cytoskeletal proteins. We hypothesize that SIKE and
WIT3 will have similar biochemical and biophysical characteristics that contribute to a shared function. To characterize WIT3,
recombinant expression systems and conditions were explored. WIT3 expressed optimally from an N-terminal 6xHis tag
expression vector at 37°C in LB supplemented with 1% glucose induced for 4-6 h. WIT3 formed inclusion bodies. Optimal
purification conditions separated insoluble WIT3 from soluble proteins followed by cobalt-based immobilized metal affinity
chromatography under denaturing conditions. WIT3 was refolded while immobilized on the resin using a 6M – 0 M GudHCl
gradient. Purity of WIT3 was assessed via SDS-PAGE analysis. Secondary structure analysis by circular dichroism indicated
a primarily helical protein, similar to SIKE. Thermal melt data yielded a Tm of 37°C, suggesting a minimally stable protein
and a lower Tm than SIKE. The initial comparison suggests that WIT3 and SIKE share similar helical structure but different
structural stability. By comparing WIT3 and SIKE structure and function, these data provide a link between innate immune
detection and the cell’s defensive response.
One pattern classically preventing blind people from attaining a quality life results from a historic perception that it is
too challenging for blind people to live self-sufficiently. This is based upon the classic perception that all forms of social
interactions stem from having eyesight, thus creating a sociology of survival, asserting that all forms of existence orient from
an individual’s amount of eyesight. Another view supports the idea of a “minimalistic approach” whereby proposing that only
a minimal investment of resources by governmental institutions is perceived as adequate, given blind people are traditionally
profiled as producing minimal results. While these have worked traditionally in tandem, a current perspective suggests many
barriers preventing blind people from succeeding stems from resistance created by institutions designed to promote their
aspirations for a quality life.
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UC Forums
To examine this complex issue effectively, this treatise explores several questions. Does a typology of blind people exist? If such
exists, then how might they affect the opportunities for other blind people’s success? How have classic occupations for blind
people complicated the promotion of more contemporary ones? Finally, to what tangible measures do institutions serving
blind people adequately promote their educational and career goals? Through taking a closer look, this study examines the
perceptions, profiles, and patterns affecting the pursuits of blind people to acquire, a purposeful life.
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Thursday, April 20
Session I; 12:10-1 p.m.
UC Forums
How Stable is Maternal Autonomy Support Across Toddler Learning Situations?
Assessing Anthropogenic Impacts on Coral Reefs in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago
KATHERINE HENRY and Aileen Maldonado
Coral reefs support more species per unit area than any other marine environment, including about 4,000 species of fish, 800
species of hard corals and hundreds of other species (“Importance of Coral Reefs”, 2008). These invaluable reef communities
all over the world are under great threat from anthropogenic effects and stressors (Seemann et. al, 2013). Ocean acidification,
rising ocean temperatures, increasingly turbid waters, and eutrophication are creating an inhospitable environment for coral
reefs to function and survive (Hoegh-Guldberg, 1999).
The Bastimentos National Marine Park in Bocas del Toro, Panama is designed to protect and improve the coral reefs found in
this pristine environment. The success of this Marine Protected Area (henceforth referred to as MPA) has not been studied
previously and so the effectiveness of the MPA is not confirmed. This study assesses water quality metrics (pH, turbidity, and
bioindicators) in reefs within the MPA to those reefs near anthropogenic outputs in the Bocas del Toro archipelago.
REBECCA SIMPSON and Adriana Molitor
Autonomy supportive parenting promotes children’s initiative and self-direction while minimizing attempts to control children
through directives and power assertion. Past research shows that parental autonomy support is important in getting young
children to willingly cooperate with parental requests. It also predicts enhanced achievement in grade-school children. While
the benefits of autonomy support have been established, less is known about predictors of autonomy supportive behavior. Few
studies have examined how consistent parents are in exhibiting autonomy support. Moreover, some research suggests that
it is influenced not only by parent qualities or child characteristics but also situational factors. The present study examines
the consistency of maternal autonomy support across two teaching situations. Specifically, mothers were rated on a range of
behaviors reflecting autonomy support and control while helping their 30-month-olds learn two relatively unfamiliar tasks:
board lacing and a multi-dimensional shape puzzle. Analyses examine the correspondence between maternal behaviors across
these contexts.
This study showed that water quality was significantly more favorable for sensitive coral at reefs inside the MPA as compared
to those outside the MPA. The water clarity was much more favorable to sensitive coral species and the coral reef composition
reflected species that require pristine water conditions (Acropora palmata and Acropora cervicornis) inside the MPA compared
to outside. Follow up studies are necessary to monitor the performance of the MPA’s coral reefs to determine the success of the
MPA.
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Day Two, Session II, Poster Presentations
Day Two, Session I, Interactive Exhibits
Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
VA/Exhibit Hall
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Sportsianity
JOSEPH JAKUBOWSKY and Atreyee Phukan
How does Arsenic enriched soil influence the growth of Miner’s Lettuce
In many ways football and Christianity play a huge role in defining one another as well as in the life of an athlete. In a world
that is sadly consumed by individualism, team sports such as football teaches an athlete to be a “serrvant” and to help others
on and off the field. The recently retired and future hall of famer Steve Smith from the Baltimore Ravens represents the ideal
meaning of being a servant Christian athlete. Smith and his organization go to the cities of his childhood neighborhood and
wash the feet of children who are less fortunate. In this essay, I combine my personal experiences as a Christian athlete at USD
with research to argue that religion brings a person closer to their identity as an athlete as well as to their faith. Whereas many
people argue that football takes a person away from the principles and virtues of their religion, I believe that it (specifically,
Christianity) can be seen as essential tool for the development, unity, and peaceful co-existence between an athlete and their
community.
HANNAH MENELAWS and Bethany O’Shea
Claytonia Perfoliata, otherwise known as Miner’s Lettuce, was discovered to be growing naturally in soil at the site of Black
Mountain, an old mine known to be highly contaminated with arsenic (As). This study served to examine the influence of
arsenic enriched soil on the plant’s overall growth. The study was conducted in a controlled environment using samples of soil
(200g) collected from various points along a plotted grid near the entrance of Black Mountain. This study used soil pots with
varying As concentrations, which were determined through the use of an XRF machine: a control (14ppm), A3 (297ppm),
B1 (339ppm), C3 (34.4ppm), D2 (26.4ppm), As tailings (1.34%ppm). The development of the plants was measured over a
one month time period via their leaf width, leaf length, stem height and plant abundance. The plants growing in soil that was
moderately contaminated with As (C3 and D2) saw the most substantial growth, indicating the plants ability to adapt and
acquire tolerance to an environment that has been enriched with As.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Conscious Capitalism: Do Conscious Businesses Outperform the Market and Create
Superior Stakeholder Value
AKRIA BANNAI and Tara Salinas
Growing public discontent in the United States with the attitudes and values of corporate America has led to mass protests and
increased buyer discretion. Consumers are increasingly making buying choices based on their perception of how companies
positively or negatively impact society. To address the changing needs of consumers, John Mackey, Whole Foods Market
co-founder and CEO, and Rajendra Sisodia, Professor of Global Business at Babson College, write in Conscious Capitalism:
Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Capitalism that a more holistic approach to business can help businesses sustain competitive
advantages and create market-beating long-term value. Namely, that businesses which subscribe to and integrate the core
tenets of Conscious Capitalism into their business philosophy outperform non-conscious competitors in creating stakeholder
value. To examine this claim, this paper first defines Conscious Capitalism as it relates to similar concepts around social or
environmental responsibility and develops criteria for determining if a business is “conscious.” Next, it compares Southwest
Airlines, a conscious company, and JetBlue Airways using a stakeholder analysis framework to determine the relative value
created by each company. Finally, it examines the financial performance of conscious companies against industry peers and
the overall market using relevant key performance indicators and a portfolio analysis. If these claims are true with respect to
the performance of conscious companies, the business case for Conscious Capitalism gains credibility and its future adoption
within the broader market will revolutionize standard business operation and strategy models. Companies will operate to
fulfill their respective stated higher purpose, creating outstanding stakeholder value and elevating society in the process.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Accessing Higher Education Post-Civil Rights Movement
ALEXA LAYNE and Atreyee Phukan
As of 2013, higher education in the United States is comprised of over 7,000 postsecondary institutions, which, according
to the U.S. Department of Education, receive federal student aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Amendments of
1992. In this project, I will focus on public and private two- and four-year nonprofit institutions, which are the most sought
after degree-granting colleges. I employ the term “access” as it is used in the field of education, which typically refers to the
ways in which educational institutions and policies ensure that all students have equal and equitable opportunities to take
full advantage of their education. However, I argue that when the race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status of a student are
taken into consideration, the aforementioned equitable opportunities seem to vanish. Universities now display more diversity
than has been shown in the past, yet that does not mean that the playing field is equal for all minorities. Between whites and
minorities, a relatively equal amount are enrolling in college after high school, yet not an equal amount are graduating with
degrees. Some believe that the reasoning behind this is that minorities are not prepared for the university setting and do not
feel as if they fit in. Therefore, it may be the case that the equal access legislation could prove detrimental to the students they
intend to serve.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Isolation and Characterization of Arsenic-Resistant Bacteria found in Contaminated
Soil at Black Mountain Mine
ALEXANDRIA MORGAN, STEPHANIE KATZ and Terry Bird
Black Mountain mine in east San Diego County, California was the site of heavy arsenic mining in the early 20th century. The
mining was short lived, but the soil became extremely contaminated with arsenic and remains so today. Primary literature
reports that some bacteria can grow in arsenic-contaminated soils because of their resistance to the toxicity (Pepi, Volterrani
et al., 2007). We wished to identify and characterize the arsenic-resistant bacteria growing in the soil in and around the Black
Mountain mine. We expected to find arsenic-resistant bacteria due to the evolutionary pressure of an arsenic-contaminated
environment. We isolated resistant species from the soil by plating dilutions on R2A medium supplemented with arsenate and
then sequenced their 16S rRNA genes. The DNA sequences were used to identify species using a nucleotide BLAST program.
With this information, we constructed a phylogenetic tree to examine the evolutionary relationships between these different
arsenic-resistant bacteria.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
“The Grocery Bar”: Exploring Millennials’ Culinary Habits
ALYSSA CHERNY and Maria Kniazeva
The Grocery Bar is an unconventional marriage of a traditional grocery store and a revamped “night out” experience. It is a
novel, dual-purpose establishment geared toward millennials - college students and young professionals. The premise of the
project is to make cooking less daunting and eating more experiential. The Grocery Bar will become a social hub -- a place
that welcomes health- and fun-oriented millennials. This transformational space, from a day-time grocery store to a bar in
the evening, fills a vacant niche in the food industry. My project idea draws from primary and secondary research. Seventy
self-reported, online surveys reveal the strong need for this new concept of grocery store, revitalizing culinary and social
opportunities for millennials.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Russian Foreign Policy and Energy Security: The Putin Era
CHIARA SUTTON and Vidya Nadkarni
In recent years, a more aggressive Russian foreign policy has troubled many Americans regarding Russian intentions on the
world stage and serves as an impetus to try to predict future Russian behavior. It is necessary, if trying to predict a state’s
behavior, to study the relationships among factors that state considers to be in its national interest in order to identify
consistencies and inconsistencies in policy over time. One of these relationships of recent relevance is that between Russian
foreign policy more generally and Russian energy policy during the Putin period, especially when considering recent deals
like the natural gas pipeline through Turkey built in 2016. Using the Russian relationship with Ukraine, this paper examines
whether Russia has deployed its energy policy as a tool to achieve its foreign policy interests.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Italian Unification and the Rise of the Mafia
Profitability and Performance of Sustainable Lab Space
ALEXIS DACHS and John Demas
The purpose of this research project is to determine performance and profitability of sustainable lab spaces. As the biotech
industry rapidly grows, it is important to evaluate whether or not improving the energy efficiency of lab spaces has an
economic gain and if they are a more sought out pieces of real estate because they are sustainable. This study assesses this
topic through a series of interviews with the tenants, owners, and facility managers of current lab spaces in San Diego. The
analysis reveals that while upgrading to energy-saving technology in a lab space does save money, many biotech companies
are not interested in applying for their building to become LEED certified. This is largely due to two reasons. The first reason
is because LEED-certified commercial buildings have expected higher rental premiums even though they continue to have
higher vacancy rates than non-LEED certified buildings. The second reason is the majority of new equipment used for lab
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spaces already have numerous regulations that force systems, like HVAC, to be energy efficient. Due to this, many biomedical
companies that move into new lab spaces are not willing to use further resources, such as time, money, and manpower, to
become LEED certified because they know that the majority of their equipment is already energy efficient. This research
suggests that energy efficiency is an expected feature in lab spaces and because of this, LEED-certified lab spaces do not have
significantly greater real estate performance or profitability than a non-certified commercial lab.
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CHRISTINA MCLAUGHLIN and Loredana di Martino
The period surrounding Unification and the birth of the Italian nation had a lasting impact on the mafia in Southern Italy
and gave it the social and political influence still felt today. Before looking at how the mafia achieved the power that it did,
it is essential to define what “mafia” is and how it came to be understood¾or in many cases, misunderstood. I will examine
how the word “mafia” developed to define the secret societies so prevalent across Southern Italy from the mid-nineteenth
century through today. I will look at the etymology of the word, and how it was used by its members as well as by outsiders
trying to understand the functioning of these organized criminal groups. I will also analyze the myths that surrounded the
mafia, specifically in the times leading up to Italian Unification and the immediate post-Unification period (1840-1900). The
two mafia groups that I will be analyzing are Cosa Nostra in Sicily and Camorra in Naples. Each of these groups has their
own rituals, traditions, and specific circumstances of origination. Yet both gained significant power beginning with Italian
Unification, and managed to deeply infiltrate social life, politics, and justice. One of the biggest contributing factors was the
failure of Unification in democratizing Italian society. I will use Antonio Gramsci’s theory about the Risorgimento as a “failed”
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social revolution¾that did not include or change the conditions of the peasant class¾to show how the newly formed Italian
state allowed the mafia take-over of the old aristocratic landowning class, while stopping the agrarian cooperative movements
that were trying to fight the feudal structure in which the mafia had originated and thrived.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Analysis of Hypertrophy and Hyperplasia in Arctoscion nobilis (White Sea Bass)
DARIUS TENORIO and Sue Lowery
An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Climate Change Education Programs and
Applicability to Climate Education Partners
CHRIS WAITE and Michel Boudrais
Climate change is a complex science that many find difficult to understand or relate to due to the order at which it influences
atmospheric and ecological changes. The Climate Education Partners are an education group working on San Diego’s Climate
Action Plan to prepare the city for current and future climate issues such as drought, floods, and health issues. Various
multilateral education efforts are being taken by numerous organizations and firms to increase educational opportunities,
inspire integrative learning, discuss social and behavioral responses to climate change, and allow for decision makers to
forward effective and informed ameliorative policy. Research was conducted to analyze numerous international, national, and
regional organizations currently engaged in climate science education. An organization’s science and communication content
was of the upmost importance; curricula were consistently analyzed and reviewed to observe whether or not content was
successful in creating and maintaining climate awareness as well as capacity for decision makers to engage in ameliorative
policy. Results indeed found that with a well-balanced, structured curriculum and a combination of science, communication,
and behavioral content, education efforts were either more engaged in or taken up by decision makers. This research dives
deeper to better understand the content that these organizations discuss in their education programs. This research also
provides potential organizations that the Climate Education Partners could choose to partner with in order to enhance their
education efforts. Certain groups or organizations require more effective structure and increased participation of decision
makers before partnering could be suggested. In order to truly understand the effectiveness of these education programs, more
data and actual review of national or regional policy and maintenance is key.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Where Do We Go From Here? University of San Diego Climate Action Plan
CLAIRE FLYNN, Michael Catanzaro, Scott Anders, and Michel Boudrias
The University of San Diego Climate Action Plan (CAP), approved Fall 2016, will have major effects on the infrastructure
of USD’s campus and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This research sought to analyze and predict the implementation
strategies for the CAP as well as measurement techniques and engagement opportunities. Through literature review and
analysis of the CAP document, this research found that campus and community engagement, cross-collaboration between
camps departments, and structured analysis will be essential to the success of the CAP at USD. Additionally, the research looks
at the effects and benefits that CAP will have on USD students. Overall, the research sets guidelines and recommendations for
implementation of the University of San Diego Climate Action Plan.
A better understanding of muscle growth responses to environmental changes is absolutely needed in the industry of
aquaculture. Learning more about the growth plasticity of fish muscle response patterns to differing swim speeds help to
understand the molecular interworkings of fish while also contributing to aquaculture restocking and growth programs
alike. This muscular growth is categorized by either hypertrophy, where existing fish muscle fibers continuously expand,
or hyperplasia, where a fish muscle continuously recruits new muscle fibers. In this field, growth response research has
provided contradicting conclusions and thus continued research is required. Dr. Susan Lowery, through the Hubbs-SeaWorld
Research Institute, provided the experimentally raised White Sea Bass fish for this analysis. Through Image J software, I was
able to analyze fish muscle fibers at a micron/unit level, which gave us a precise and accurate way to infer hypertrophy versus
hyperplasia. From our preliminary results of red and white muscle fiber analysis at a medium and fast swim speed, we see
a broad range in muscle fiber size and changes in plasticity between white and red fish muscle growth at these speeds. In
addition, we were able to see increases in hypertrophy and hyperplasia depending on the fish. From this preliminary data, we
hope to advance our knowledge about these mechanisms through continued measurements and analysis in the future.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Selective Plane Illumination Differential Dynamic Microscopy with Adaptive Optics
DEVYNN WULSTEIN and Ryan McGorty
We measured the dynamics of colloidal particles and DNA molecules using differential dynamic microscopy (DDM) on images
captured through selective-plane illumination microscopy (SPIM). Combining DDM, a digital Fourier microscopy method,
and SPIM, an optical sectioning microscopy technique, we can analyze the dynamics of concentrated suspensions. Further,
selective-plane illumination differential dynamic microscopy (SPIDDM) exploits the spatial variations of the Gaussian lightsheet to obtain diffusion data over a wide range of spatial frequencies. Presented work focuses on in vitro measurements of
colloids, DNA molecules, and cytoskeleton networks. However, given SPIM’s compatibility with living samples, SPIDDM could
efficiently extract dynamics within living organisms. We are currently adding adaptive optics into our light-sheet microscope
with a deformable mirror. We discussed using adaptive optics for multiple purposes. The mirror corrects optical aberrations
due to the sample holder and the sample. We are also using adaptive optics to optimize the three-dimensional point spread
function for DDM measurements. Using the deformable mirror to purposefully introduce known aberrations could allow for a
more precise measurement of colloidal or molecular dynamics in three-dimensions.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Cities in Late Antiquity: Comparing Classical Urban Ideals to a Medieval European
and Medieval Arab City
EMILY BOLENDER and Ryan Abrecht
The waning of the Roman Empire’s power in the fourth and fifth centuries signalled the dawning of a new age in both Europe
and the East. Significant cultural changes, such as the rise of Christianity and Islam, created an environment where the
purpose and organization of cities had to adapt or the city would fail. The Roman city Trier illustrates the classical ideal of
the city, or urbs. Medieval Florence, though formerly Roman, underwent many periods of occupation and transition in the
post-Roman world and exemplifies a medieval Italian city-state. In the east, the Abbasid capital Samarra reveals how the Arab
caliphate conceptualized central power, and how power functions in an urban setting. By comparing the archaeology and
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primary and secondary sources related to these three cities, we can get a better understanding of urbanism in late antiquity,
and how shifting power, cultural practices, and social ideals can affect the organization and purpose of urban spaces.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Cost of College Education and its Effect On Graduation Rates
Trends in Venture Capital Investments and Exit Strategies
ERICK GORODEZKY and Dennis Zocco
With only less than 4,000 of the millions of businesses in the US being public, there are large investment opportunities in the
less-regulated private markets. By looking at trends in venture capital, entrepreneurs can gain insight into the industries they
should funnel their innovative ideas, while investors can see where to insert their funds. From looking back at the growth of
past companies to examining the strategies of unicorns today, the vast changes that increased information has led to in private
equity markets can be detected. The average company valuations have been highly affected by the technological advancements
that allow for more open information. Increased pressure from investors to get returns on their investments has caused a
trend of additional Mergers and Acquisition over the Initial Public Offering alternative. With more investor money pouring
into private companies, the startup community is being promoted and able to grow. As the venture capital industry continues
to grow the market inefficiencies that investors can use to their advantage may be diminished. The various trends, related to
venture capital industry, investing, exit strategy, and business strategy, have led to a rapidly changing private equity landscape.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Evaluation of the Role of Damage Associated Molecular Pattern (DAMP): HMGB1 in
Macrophage Differentiation
GASTON MOORHEAD, Andrew Smith, Yonatan Kebede, Daniel Ghebreigziabher, Raymond Huang and Anthony
Bell
High Mobility Group B1 (HMGB1) was originally classified as a highly abundant architectural nuclear protein that modulates
chromatin remodeling. In this capacity, HMGB1 binds bent/cruciform DNA such as four-way junctions (4WJs) to facilitate the
binding of transcription factors. It is now clear that HMGB1 also functions as a Damage Associated Molecular Pattern (DAMP)
in the extracellular matrix (ECM). In the ECM, HMGB1 binds to immune receptors to initiate the recruitment and activation
of macrophages. The abundance of HMGB1 can pose a problem because the unintended release of HMGB1 is often linked
with autoimmune dysfunction and autoimmune disorders such as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. A recent study shows that
HMGB1 has the capacity to skew differentiation of M2 type macrophages towards M1 type phenotypes (Schaper et al.). In
other words, HMGB1 converts “repair” macrophages (M2 type) to “destroy” macrophages (M1 type). The increased population
of M1 macrophages poses two major problems because these cells: i) cause damage (inflammation) of local healthy tissue
and ii) phagocytize apoptotic cells improperly. With respect to the latter, improperly phagocytized cells undergo secondary
necrosis and release DNA, histones, and other proteins including HMGB1 into the ECM. The presence of DNA, histones, etc.
in the ECM act as “auto-antigens” that are mistakenly presented by immune cells that generate antibodies against these cell
components (Urbonaviciute). We hypothesize that 4WJ can be used as probes to discover critical binding interactions between
HMGB1 and macrophages that control the conversion from M2 to M1. The rationale for selecting 4WJs as probes is based on
studies that show that HMGB1 bind to 4WJ with extremely high affinity (Pohler) (Ugrinova) (Seeman) (Poon).
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Thursday, April 20
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HUNTER LEVY and Alyson Ma
My project will be delving in to the costs of college education across countries and time to look at the effects that the cost of
said education has on its students. Do higher costs equate to higher graduation rates? Higher scores? Higher paying jobs? I will
use data from the World Bank as well as the OECD to capture the essence of college and attempt to come to some conclusions
about the cost of education in our current world.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Black Transnational Solidarities: Intersections of the Cold War, the Civil Rights
Movement, and Anti-Colonial Movements in Africa
JESSE FROST and Kathryn Statler and Cecily Heisser
The Cold War was a time of heightened tensions around the globe. The ideological bifurcation between the Capitalist and the
Communist world created a sense of anxiety not only from the imminent threat of the other side, but of the possibilities of
dissidents within one’s own ideological camp. This internalized fear within the United States can be seen through the rhetorical
and literal targeting of leftist organizations and their members. Specifically, from the late 1950s through the early 1970s, the
unease and suspicion of Communism within the United States became intertwined with the Civil Rights Movement. Civil
Rights struggles for equal rights and social justice were twisted by Communist-fearing white Americans, linking racism and
the Red Scare together in such a way that targeted African American activists as being communist in order to delegitimize and
derail the entirety of the movement. Concurrently, the overt racism that African Americans experienced daily in American
society forged both ideological and literal bonds between Black Americans and African nations and people fighting and
resisting their colonial metropoles.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Lysosomal Function in the Fly Model of Alzheimer’s Disease
JILLIAN WOTHE and Adam Haberman
Neurons are specialized cells that have prolonged life spans due to protective mechanisms that limit cellular damage and
death. The lysosome protects neurons by degrading damaged proteins through the use of hydrolytic enzymes. When a protein
becomes damaged, it is sent to the lysosome via autophagy and degraded, with some of its parts being reused. One hallmark
of Alzheimer’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder, is the accumulation of toxic protein aggregates in neurons. It is unknown
why these proteins are not being broken down in the lysosome. In our experiment, we designed a genetic construct that will
allow us to express a fluorescent protein called GFP under certain conditions in the neurons of the Drosophila melanogaster
fly eye. GFP will be tagged to be degraded in the lysosome, allowing us to measure the efficiency of the lysosome at breaking
down proteins in flies that are disease models of Alzheimer’s. From our results, we will learn how severely Alzheimer’s
disease affects lysosomal degradation, allowing us to better understand the pathology of the disease and design more effective
treatments.
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Thursday, April 20
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Solving Violent Crime Problems with Sports
Crime and a High Minimum Wage
JORDAN LATCHFORD and Alyson Ma
KEEGAN MCMILLAN and Alyson Ma
Many people have the notion that mass media leads to increased violence. Research is limited on the progressive effects of
sports events on crime. My research will examine how sports games affect crime in multiple cities throughout the United
States. The implications of this study will determine whether crime is recreational and opportunistic or done out of necessity.
Minimum wage rates have increased at a relatively rapid pace in recent years and will continue to rise in the near future.
Little research has been done recently regarding particularly high minimum wage rates and their relation to crime. With this
in mind, the purpose of this research is to analyze the effect of a high minimum wage on crime rates. As the wage floor rises
significantly, we expect to see increased rates of criminal activity involving monetary gain. The results, if significant, will have
implications on wage policy at the local, state, and federal level.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Luminescent Properties of Lanthanum-Based Nanocrystals with Indole-X-Carboxylic
Acid Energy Antenna
FORDYCE JUSTINE and James Bolender
Lanthanide-based nanocrystals were synthesized with terbium and europium as dopants in a LnF3 lattice in a pH 8.0 with
the intent of enhancing their luminescent properties. These nanocrystals used an amine-phosphate capping group to inhibit
the crystal growth. By converting this amine to an amide using two coupling agents, N-(3-Dimethylaminopropyl)-N?ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) and N-Hydroxysuccinimide (NHS), with an indole-X-carboxylic acids (where X = 6,
5, 3, or 2), these carboxylic acids can act as an energy antenna and transfer UV energy (290 to 320 nm) to the luminescent
terbium and europium ions. Emission and excitation spectra were collected for all samples and compared to determine
difference in the various indole carboxylic acid energy transfer. In addition to expected terbium and europium emission,
the coupling chemistry changed the fluorescence spectra of the indole-carboxylic acids, emitting blue fluorescence under
long-wave UV irradiation. This indicates that the coupling chemistry is changing the electronic energy level structures of the
indole-carboxylic acids.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Campaigning for Likes: A Look at Rational and Emotional Social Media Marketing in
the 2016 Presidential Election
KATHRYN MOSER and Justine Rapp
November 8, 2016 marked a moment in history that few who lived it will forget. Many were shocked around the world when
Donald Trump bested Hillary Clinton to win the title of President of America. To tell this story and explain its causes, several
facets need to be explored. This project takes an in-depth look into one aspect of the election: social media. Both candidates
utilized Facebook to interact and connect with audiences online. Through an in-depth content analysis of Hillary Clinton
and Donald Trump’s respective official Facebook pages and posts in the three months leading up to the presidential election,
the types of advertising techniques utilized by both candidates will be explored. Past analyses of both political campaigns
and traditional advertising shed light on how marketers and politicians alike appeal to their audiences through promotional,
rational, and emotional means. Political campaigns have been shown to utilize emotional advertising most commonly,
appealing to the fears and hopes of their voters; Lyndon B. Johnson’s Daisy campaign ad most famously represents an appeal to
fear. Though much research has been done to unveil how promotional, rational, and emotional appeals work most effectively
in advertising, varying conclusions have been made. By comparing the two candidates’ appeals, this research intends to give
a greater understanding of which appeals each candidate utilized most commonly, and subsequently how these three appeals
work to engage audiences online.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
The Identity Development and Negotiation of Asian-Americans: A Pop Culture
Direction
KEVIN DO and Leeva Chung
This project explores the development and negotiation of identity among Asian-Americans born in the United States. The
research in psychology on identity development has been rooted in Erickson’s (1980) stages of Psycho-social Development
and serves as a foundation within identity formation and development. In communication, Ting-Toomey’s (1999) Identity
Negotiation Theory accentuates the importance that identity serves as the underpinning for intercultural communication
processes. This literature review utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to explore how Asian Americans born in the United
States develop and negotiate their identity. While various social scientists have studied identity development and negotiation,
very few have accounted for the role of popular culture. Because popular culture is controlled by the dominant group and
imposes Eurocentric viewpoints, it is essential to see how it plays a role in an Asian-American’s socialization in the larger
culture since pop culture has the ability to blur cultural boundaries. Overall, this literature review will serve as the foundation
for future research on the impact of media/pop-culture on the development and negotiation of an Asian-American’s identity.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
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Community Composition of Organisms Living within the Invasive Bryozoan
Zoobotryon verticillatum in Mission Bay, San Diego
KRISTEN GARCIA and Michel Boudrias
Invasive species are a cause for concern because of their potential to cause significant damage and changes to an environment.
The bryozoan Zoobotryon verticillatum is invasive in Mission Bay and has been known to quickly colonize on docks and hard
substrates. Thus, it is often considered a threat to the area. There has been recent evidence, however, that Z. verticillatum
serves as a substantial habitat for a large number of indigenous species in Mission Bay. The purpose of this study is to
determine the abundance and community composition of the organisms living within Z. verticillatum in Mission Bay. Colonies
of Z. verticillatum were collected from the southern side of the South Shores dock for four consecutive weeks in October
2016. The wet weight and volume of each colony was measured, and then each sample was preserved in ethanol. Organisms
were filtered out from the colonies and were both counted and identified under a microscope to determine abundance and
community composition. The study found a large abundance and diversity of organisms living within each Z. verticillatum
colony. The two most abundant organisms in each colony were copepods and amphipods. In addition, a portion of the
copepods and amphipods observed were carrying eggs, suggesting that Z. verticillatum may also serve as breeding grounds to
several species.
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Thursday, April 20
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UC Forums
Religious Belief and Moral Conflict in the 21st Century: A Philosophical Investigation
of the Nexus Between Religion, Morality and Ethical Conflict.
MARY ANN LEE and Alyson Ma
The Effects of e-Commerce on the Vacancy Rates of Retail Space
LIA C. FIOR and Brian Clack
Religious belief is a problematic concept in philosophy. This paper does not aim to reach a conclusion regarding the existence,
or non-existence, of God; rather, it explores naturalistic accounts of why and how one comes to believe in the logically
dubitable notion of God. Through the analysis of the works of Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud, I suggest
that religion has developed out of a mixture of the following: alienated human projectionism, a calculated result of the coercive
practices of oppressive economic/ideological systems; and the result of wish-driven intellectual faculties misguided by the
demands of human wishes. In light of the concerns raised by these philosophers with respect to the potential issues arising
from religious belief, and with the assistance of the Euthyphro Dilemma postulated by Plato long ago, I focus on elucidating
the connection, or lack thereof, between morality and religion. While Kierkegaard argues against universal ethics and in
support of a justified teleological suspension of the ethical, I suggest that the issues he discusses translate practically into the
religiously inspired terrorism and exclusionism we have witnessed throughout the past few decades of moral history. Thus, I
investigate some of the practical implications of treating religious beliefs as equivalent to other forms of belief, which typically
require more evidence for their support. Insofar as monotheistic religious beliefs are not shared by all individuals alike, I argue
in favor of a more universal and secular morality such as the one developed by David Hume.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Neural basis of ovipositional preference in Drosophila melanogaster
LUKE MUSKETT, Shalin Shah and Divya Sitaraman
The long-term goal of our project involves finding evolutionarily-conserved neurotransmitter systems and circuits that
underlie decision-making processes. Decision-making is a complex behavior that depends on an organism’s environment,
internal state (e.g. hunger, sleep, etc.), and motivation. Layers of cognitive and emotional processes make it difficult to narrow
down what factors cause organisms to make the decisions that they do. In order to find true cause and effect relationships, it
is necessary to study simple organisms that have simple decision-making behaviors and fewer neurons. To this end, we chose
Drosophila melanogaster, fruit fly, a widely-used genetic model organism because of its experimental manipulability, ease
of rearing, short life cycle and ability to make simple decisions in light of competing choices. Of the many decision-making
processes, we chose to study egg-laying preferences of the female fly. The decision to lay eggs in specific locations depends on
texture, temperature, humidity, and nutrient value of the substrates to ensure the success of the progeny. For example, female
flies show a strong preference for food containing ethanol. The fly integrates multiple sensory stimuli (vision, smell, touch,
and taste) and lays eggs in highly specialized locations but it is unclear how internal behavioral states like hunger and sleep
affect this decision. We have developed a novel assay design to test the oviposition preference and will present data showing a
role for conserved neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and octopamine in this behavioral assay.
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With the emergence of online shopping and the increasing growth of e-commerce sales, the future of commercial real estate,
with respect to retail spaces, becomes an important area of focus. As establishments within the retail industry diminish
throughout the years, a growing concern over space re-allocation, vacancy rates, and commercial real estate market values may
change the way in which firms choose to operate their business. This study aims to investigate the current state of the retail
industry, specifically within the real estate market, as it seeks to quantify the effect of e-commerce on the vacancy rate of retail
spaces in the United States.
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Thursday, April 20
Session II; 1:10-2 p.m.
UC Forums
Gender Wage Gap by College: An Examination of the Political and Social Influences
on Gender Ideology in a College Environment
MATTHEW SMITH and Alyson Ma
Previous studies have proven that the endorsement of a more traditional gender ideology is associated with a higher chance of
women earning a lower wage compared to men. This study will attempt to analyze the political and social environment where
a college is located and use the more prominent political view as a determining variable in a linear regression on the wage gaps
of varying colleges.
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Thursday, April 20
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UC Forums
Factors Influencing U.S. Income Inequality
MATTHEW PINHEIRO and Alyson Ma
The purpose of this research is to analyze the factors that contribute to income inequality in the United States. Understanding
the nature of income dispersion in the United States can offer insight on potential issues that could effect future economic
growth. Increased research on this topic will provide evidence for or against potential governmental reforms affecting income
for millions of the working population. Levels of income inequality affect important social factors that contribute to the well
being of individuals and the populace as well as economic incentives for entrepreneurs to capitalize on market conditions and
increase productivity and quality of life for Americans.
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Identification of pIgR in Zebrafish
MEGHAN MCKENNA AND MEAGAN SHERRINGTON and Valerie Hohman
This project aims to determine the expression of the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR) in developing and adult
zebrafish. While this antibody transport protein plays an integral role in mucosal immunity, little is known regarding its
expression within developing and adult fish. Using RNA probes and whole mount in situ hybridizations, the messenger RNA
coding for the pIgR protein will be detected at various stages in zebrafish development to determine the stage of development
that pIgR is initially expressed. Additionally, the location of mRNA coding for pIgR within specific tissue in both developing
and adult fish will be determined. This study will help us better understand the development of the immune system in fish,
which may help in the creation of more effective vaccines for use in aquaculture.
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UC Forums
The Bright Future of Nuclear Power in the United States: Considering Causes of
Variation at the State Level
The Effects of the H90 and E256 Mutations in the Interface on the Structure,
Stability, and Activity of gMDH
MOLLY HUMPHREYS and Randy Willoughby
NINA MARIE GARCIA and Jessica Bell
In the next 25 years, the Department of Energy has predicted that global energy and electricity generation will increase 56%
and 93%, respectively. For this reason, nuclear power is compelling to study due to the wide variation of nuclear power
industries worldwide. For instance, some countries, like China, are expanding their industry, while others, like Germany are
abandoning their industry all together. However, this research is specific to exploring the existing variation of nuclear power
in the United States at the state level and seeks to consider the future of the nuclear power industry as a whole in the United
States. There are a number of variables that affect this industry, such as competing energy sources, safety, and both federal and
local policy. This study will explore these factors, among others, in relation to the nuclear power industry in selected states
with varying attitudes and actions toward nuclear power. This includes expanding the industry or abandoning it all together,
thus looking to the future of the nuclear power industry in the United States.
Interfaces are regions in a protein that form through interactions between subunits of a single protein. The interface’s role
in communicating activation or inhibition makes it critical for an organism’s survival but has not yet been fully understood.
Glyoxysomal malate dehydrogenase (gMDH) is a homodimeric enzyme with a single interface thought to participate in the
regulation of gMDH. gMDH, which catalyzes the production of oxaloacetate in the glyoxylate cycle, is allosterically regulated
by citrate. Citrate binds to a single subunit of gMDH but inhibits both active sites, indicating that the inhibitory effect must
be passed through the interface. Understanding the role of the interface in regulation is central to understanding how gMDH
catalyzes its reaction and its regulation. The interface contains electrostatic interactions, among others, between amino acid
residues. To probe the role of individual sidechains at the interface, this project aims to disrupt favorable interactions by
site-directed mutagenesis and determine the effects on stability, activity, and regulation. H90 and E256 appear to form a pHdependent interaction across the interface. We have constructed, expressed, and purified two mutants, H90Q and E256Q. Size
exclusion chromatography showed that neither mutation disrupted the dimeric state. Circular dichroism showed that WT,
H90Q, and E256Q share identical secondary structures. The thermal melts demonstrate that the E256Q mutant is less stable
than the H90Q and WT proteins. Kinetic assays showed that the WT, H90Q, and E256Q mutants differ in kinetic properties.
Thus, the results suggest that the residues are critical for the enzyme’s activity and stability.
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Thursday, April 20
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The Impacts of Ocean Acidification on the Diversity and Mean Sizes of Pteropods
Gonzalo Crivelli, Andy Sia
Increases in anthropogenic carbon dioxide levels have resulted in an increase in surface ocean carbon dioxide levels, driving
pH levels down in the water column. This phenomenon, known as ocean acidification, is harmful to many organisms,
including pteropods, which form their shells out of calcium carbonate. Ocean acidification reduces the amount of available
calcium carbonate for pteropods. This study examined the diversity and mean sizes of pteropods in relation to pH, off the east
coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The goal was to determine if the diversity and mean sizes of pteropods correlate
with the relative pH of the sampled regions. Based on the results of previous-related studies, we hypothesized that there was
a correlation between the diversity and mean sizes of pteropods and pH values. A lower pH led to lower diversity and smaller
sizes, and a higher pH led to higher diversity and bigger sizes. Pteropod samples were collected in the nighttime from a meter
net towed at a speed of two knots. The meter net was towed down to a depth of 200m. The pteropods were then separated
out from the other contents of the tow and placed in sciv files filled with ethanol. Next, the pteropods were observed under
a microscope to determine species type, and measured with a caliper to determine mean length and width. pH values were
gathered using a spectrophotometer. Our results demonstrated a correlation between pteropod diversity and relative pH, with
more pteropods found in less acidic waters and fewer pteropods found in more acidic waters. However, the correlation became
less clear when comparing mean length and width to relative pH. Ultimately, because of various constraints, we were hesitant
to accept or reject our hypothesis based on current results. Further research needs to be conducted on the subject matter
before a decisive judgment can be formed.
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Water you drinking?: Nitrate Contamination of Drinking Water in the San Joaquin
Valley
SIMONE BATISTE, PERLA CRUZ, RICARDO CABRERO, GASTON MOORHEAD, MADELINE NELSON and Jane
Friedman, Kevin Pelaez, Candice Price and Amanda Ruiz
Our work is based on the paper Social disparities in Nitrate-Contaminated Drinking Water in California’s San Joaquin Valley
by Balazs et al., which studies disproportionate exposure to contaminants through drinking water in low-income and minority
communities. We reexamine the nitrate contaminant levels based on more recent data to determine if there has been any
change in water quality. We will examine levels of arsenic-contamination in the water in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
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UC Forums
Burn Forest Burn: Effects of Controlled Burning on Forest Soils
QUINN TAYLOR and Meghan Midgley
In eastern deciduous forests, controlled burning is a common management technique used to control invasive understory
plants and promote oak regeneration. However, little is known about how burning impacts soils. Studying these effects
will aid in better understanding how burning is affecting the forest as a whole. We evaluated soil biogeochemical responses
to controlled burning in forest plots with varying abundance of two types of trees: trees associated with either arbuscular
mycorrhizal fungi or ectomycorrhizal fungi. We addressed two main questions: (1) does soil biogeochemistry change with
controlled burning? (2) does tree mycorrhizal association mediate the effects of annual burning on soils? We found that
burned areas have higher pH, carbon, nitrogen, and organic matter, and decreased acid phosphatase activity. Tree mycorrhizal
association was not found to impact soil factors or to mediate the effects of burning. We predict an increase in phosphorous
in burned areas, which may cause an increase in phosphorous-rich plants. Burning increases light available on the forest
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floor and increases organic matter, carbon, and nitrogen, which may benefit oak regeneration. However, increased understory
herbaceous plants in the burned areas are likely shading out many of the oak seedlings. These results should be considered
when predicting the benefits of controlled burns. Funding was provided by the Center for Tree Science at the Morton
Arboretum.
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UC Forums
Mobility and Conformational Dynamics of Large DNA Diffusing Through
Cytoskeletal Networks
The Impact of Water Chemistry and Lake Characteristics on the Morphology of
Damselfly Larvae
The high concentrations of proteins crowding cells greatly influence intracellular DNA dynamics. These crowders, ranging
from small mobile proteins to large cytoskeletal filaments such as semiflexible actin and rigid microtubules, can hinder
diffusion and induce conformational changes in DNA. The rigidity, mobility, and concentration of crowders all play a role in
DNA transport, yet previous studies have mainly focused on the effect of small mobile crowders on transport. At the same
time the rigid cytoskeleton has been identified as a key factor suppressing viral transfection and gene delivery. Here, we use
fluorescence microscopy and custom single-molecule conformational tracking algorithms to measure center-of-mass transport
and time-varying conformational sizes and shapes of single 115 kbp DNA molecules diffusing in networks of actin filaments
and microtubules. We determine the dependence of protein concentration (11.4 uM) and rigidity (actin vs microtubules)
on DNA dynamics. Corresponding measurements with monomeric actin and tubulin identify the roles that network rigidity
versus excluded volume play in transport. Initial results show that crowding by microtubules induces anomalous transport
and larger, slower conformational fluctuations of DNA.
KATHRYN REGAN, Shea Ricketts and Rae Anderson
RUTH HOOVER and Kate Boersma
Humans affect aquatic habitats by altering their chemistry, nutrient content, and temperature. Studies have recorded impacts
of these anthropogenic changes on the physiology and behavior of aquatic organisms, but less is known about how changes
in water chemistry affect their morphology. To address this need, we examined the effects of physical, chemical, and biological
changes in the aquatic environment on gill morphology in larval damselflies (Ischnura) collected from 19 lakes throughout
California. We used linear modeling approaches to determine which of a suite of 60 environmental predictors affected gill
surface area (lamellae). Specifically, we hypothesized that increasing water temperatures and hypoxic conditions would be
associated with damselfly larvae with larger lamellae. We found that turbidity was positively correlated with lamellae size but
that temperature and dissolved oxygen were not important predictors. As damselfly larvae with larger lamellae are easier prey
for fish, this could impact aquatic food webs. Construction can cause increased turbidity. As the human population continues
to grow, it is important to look at how anthropogenic changes affect aquatic organisms, especially aquatic insects as they are an
important part of many aquatic food webs.
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The Effects of Nucleotides on the Conformational Flexibility and Stability of
Glutamate Dehydrogenase
With Dignity: Observations of an Effective Transfer of Design and Building
Instructions of an Assistive Latrine Aid Device for Landmine Survivors in Rural
Uganda
Glutamate Dehydrogenase (GDH) catalyzes the reversible oxidative deamination of glutamate using NAD(P)+(H) and is
involved in various metabolic pathways and energy cycles. GDH can be allosterically regulated by various nucleotides (ADP,
GTP) as well as showing cofactor cooperativity. Previous work shows NADH binds to both the active site and a second
regulatory(inhibitory) site while NADPH binds only to the active site. We hypothesize that changes in stability/flexibility
correlate with inhibition and activation. To explore the allosteric mode for GDH, we have used Fluorescence based Thermal
Shift Assays (FbTSA), Circular Dichroism (CD) and Thermal melts (Tm) and Limited Proteolysis using immobilized trypsin
and tandem mass spectrometry (LP) to explore the stability (global and localized) of the protein in the presence or absence of
various combinations of nucleotides. CD and Tm studies indicate that while the overall structure of the protein is not changed
by pH, the stability changes dramatically over the pH range 6-8.5 with a pKa of 7.4. Below the pKa FbTSA experiments show
that ADP and NADH binding to its regulatory site stabilize the protein significantly while NAD(P)H binding to the active site,
or GTP binding destabilize the protein. The presence of glutamate has little effect. At pH 8 ADP and GTP have similar effects,
while with NADH and NADPH destabilizes the protein. To determine localized regions of the protein responsible for these
effects, we are using LP experiments and mapping regions of flexibility changes on the overall 3 dimensional structure of the
protein.
SIRENA TRAN and Jessica Bell
HANNON BAILEY, Margaret Arach Orech, and Frank Jacobitz
Observations of an effective transfer of design and building instructions of an assistive latrine aid device are provided.
Landmine survivors, along with other handicapped and elderly individuals, have difficulty using pit latrine toilets, and this
project aims to help restore safety, independence, and dignity to their lives. The need for such an assistive device was identified
by the Uganda Landmine Survivors Association (ULSA). Starting in early 2015, a group of students and faculty from the
University of San Diego worked with ULSA to design and build prototypes of assistive latrine aid devices. These prototypes
were evaluated in January 2016 in Uganda based on stability, manufacturability, and cost. This contribution pertains to the
development of a sustainable model for constructing these devices in rural Uganda along with an effective transfer of design
and building instructions to Ave Maria vocational school in January 2017. It explains the approach taken to most effectively
identify possible recipients for vocational training support, the integration of the device design and construction into their
vocational training, the need for community and family involvement during the training process, and reasonable expectations
for both equipment and technical understanding of carpentry. It was observed that the successful implementation of a
sustainable engineering project is best accomplished by directly interacting with the target population, utilizing local recourses
and skills, and incorporating community contacts to increase channels of communication across cultures.
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The Faces of Denial in Dystopian Fiction
The Original Agent Carter: Women in the Special Operations Executive
STEPHANIE MAZZUCA and David Sullivan
CAMERON CARLOMAGNO and Kathryn Statler
As the world slips into further social and environmental decline, the question of how society will be forced to adapt is being
answered by an increasingly popular genre: the dystopian text. This study utilizes a ritual genre analysis to assess various
dystopian characteristics of contemporary works, focusing on Ernest Cline’s best-selling novel Ready Player One in four areas:
its dual setting, style and structure, character development, and narrative themes. Specifically, this thesis addresses how Ready
Player One’s characters escape their dismal environment in favor of a utopian virtual reality and how the storyline is actually a
critical reflection of society’s denial of impending problems. The citizens in this novel are enslaved by their own addiction to a
“video game” while simultaneously denying their responsibility for the welfare of the actual world.
When someone pictures what a spy looks like, the first image that usually comes to mind is James Bond—tall, mysterious,
suave, and male. What is usually not associated with this image, however, is the woman who walks down the street carrying
a purse and seemingly enjoying the day; yet she is the perfect candidate because she is deemed innocuous by society.
This woman was the exact person that the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E) was looking for to help the resistance
movements around Europe, during World War II—a secret organization established to collaborate with resistance groups
across Europe and divert enemy military advances. Nevertheless, the women that would join this British spy network have
not been remembered in standard history textbooks. They were, however, recognized in Marvel’s fictional character Agent
Peggy Carter—a woman who was recruited by the S.O.E for her brilliance in code breaking. The historical questions this
research examines are what role did the women of the S.O.E play in fighting in and ending World War II in Europe, and more
importantly whether modern popular culture representations, specifically Marvel’s Agent Carter, are accurate.
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The Effects of Early Digital Media Exposure on Development
SUSANNAH JENNINGS and Mike Williams
In today’s technologically-driven society, digital media has become a centerpiece in the lives of most Americans, including
children. The average child spends just over three hours per day consuming media, including TV, computer, mobile devices
and tablets, and video games, while average time spent reading amounts to less than 20 minutes per day. Furthermore, infants
under the age of two spend an alarming average of almost one hour per day exposed to digital media screens. The time spent
only increases as children get older, and the implications of such behaviors are being increasingly reported to be associated
with behavioral, health, and emotional problems appearing later in teenaged and young adult years. The purpose of my study
is to examine the possible detrimental effects that early over-exposure to digital media has on the development of children.
Using current research studies on infant brain development, the ways that media can interfere with healthy development
progression, and longitudinal data, I will attempt to pinpoint the result of exposing young children to substantial amounts of
TV and other screen time during their critical developmental stages. I conclude that media over-exposure at a young age will
result in significantly higher rates of behavioral problems, poor health habits, and a lack of emotional attachment. In a world
where digital media is here to stay and will likely only become more prevalent, the implications of this situation are critical to
address.
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Does Priming Have an Effect On Ego-Depletion?
Zaki Alabdullah, Imani Payton, Yifeng Du and Rebekah Wanic
The ego-depletion perspective on self-control argues that self-control is a limited resource. Therefore, when self-control has
been exercised on a prior task, less will be available for future tasks (Muraven, Tice, & Baumeister, 1998). The aim of the
present research is to evaluate whether the introduction of a priming stimulus might serve to counteract the effects of egodepletion and improve self-control. Participants were randomly assigned to be exposed to a healthy eating prime or not and
then completed an ego-depletion task. Self-control was then assessed with two methods, via self-report and behaviorally by
looking at participants’ food choice. Because previous research has also suggested that women display more self-control than
men (Chubb, Fertman, & Ross, 1997), gender differences were assessed. The results indicated that priming had a significant
effect on food choice but not self-reported self-control. There was also no evidence for a gender difference on either measure.
We conclude that priming can work help override the effects of ego-depletion, but more research is warranted. Suggestions for
future research are discussed.
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The Innovative Power of Immigrants
WILLIAM CEN LAM and Alyson Ma
The purpose of this study is to discover the relationship between immigration and innovation in the United States by
measuring patent per capita. The research demonstrates that immigrants patent at the double the native rate, due to their
disproportionately holding of science and engineering degrees. The paper tries to measure the change in the skilled immigrant
share since the 1940 distribution across states of immigrants from various source regions and the subsequent national increase
in skilled immigration from these areas.
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Indigenous Contact with Cabrillo: Early Interactions Between the Kumeyaay and the
Spanish Explorers
ANDRES MEZA, KATHERINE SPENCER and Tavio Del Rio, Iris Engstrand and Colin Fisher
Our research will help promote the indigenous presence by revamping the interpretive plan of 2009. The Interpretive plan is
from 2009, so it has been seven years since its publication. I would assume that this project was stalled somewhere along the
way or lost under paperwork, but although the description is a little vague I think that a commemorative work or memorial
type project would help to bring the Kumeyaay community into Cabrillo and make connections between Cabrillo and other
aspects of San Diego’s history and culture. Making these connections would help achieve some of the objects set forth by the
National Park Service’s Call to Action for the second century of the NPS. One objective in the call to action stated, “We will
fully represent our nation’s ethnically and culturally diverse communities. To achieve the promise of democracy, we will create
and deliver activities, programs, and services that honor, examine, and interpret America’s complex heritage.” I believe that
one of the ways to more fully represent San Diego’s diverse community would be to involve the Kumeyaay more, as they are
the bases of civilization in San Diego. In addition, making more personal connections to the people involved in the history
of Cabrillo would help to diversify the monument and allow people to make more personal connections with the history of
the monument. Furthermore, through our research we will depict how the first interactions between the Kumeyaay and the
Spanish explorers might have looked.
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Mathematical Methods of Phylogenetics
SOPHIA RAGLIONE, LIA HEBERT, and Satyan Devadoss
Phylogenetics is a way of studying relationships through building genetic trees. By studying these phylogenetic trees, we
can process large data sets to see complex relationships in a visual way. Many mathematical methods produce different trees
with different accuracies and applications. We are studying distance, character, and probabilistic methods and how to best
apply them to particular data sets. Using the program Phylip, we wrote code to analyze data sets we have collected from
local breweries. This code converts matrices to proper input files for the program which is important in helping to process
large data sets. We applied neighbor-joining, parsimony, and UPGMA methods to generate different trees and analyzed their
accuracy by bootstrapping the data. By proper application of various methods, we can more accurately understand complex
relationships generated by large amounts of data.
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Effects of temperature on embryos and young larvae of Atlantic silverside
of this range. Embryonic period duration decreased exponentially with increasing temperature (range >36 d at 12°C to 4.5 d
at 32°C). Larvae survived without food for an average of 6 d which was independent of incubation temperature. Larval size
at hatching decreased with temperature. Although M. menidia are tolerant to a broad range of temperatures, even slight shifts
within the viable range could result in fitness and population consequences as a result of smaller sizes at hatching, related
limitation in prey diversity, and greater risk to predation.
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Pseudoku – Automatic Generation of Vertices
EUGENE PROKOPENKO and Jane Friedman
Sudoku is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. In Sudoku, the player must fill in remaining numbers so
that the rows, columns, and inner boxes add up to a certain number. For this project we have developed a computer program
for a game called Pseudoku, which is similar to Sudoku, but with slightly different rules. The main function of the program
is the auto-generation and filtration of shape vertices. The Pseudoku program will be used to gather data for an inductive
mathematical proof that is being constructed by Professor Jane Friedman. The data is in the form of vertices for matrices of
various dimensions. The program displays an N^2 by N^2 matrix, divided into N^2 small matrices, each consisting of N rows
and N columns. The N^2 by N^2 matrix represents a shape. Each point on the shape is determined by filling in values in the
matrix according to specific rules. The shape’s outer bounds are defined by a set of special points called vertices. These vertices
are determined by creating a system of linear equations from integers in the matrix space and then solving the equations. If the
system has only one unique solution, then this point is a vertex. The program will allow for an efficient gathering of data in a
user-friendly way.
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Do Black Lives Matter in Spain?
JANE HENDERSON and JESUS MARTINEZ SAUCEDO and Rebecca Ingram
The (EU)ropeanization of Spain in 1986 has led to Spain’s implementation of drastically brutal methods to control the influx
of “illegal” immigrants trying to enter Spanish territory. From 1996 to 2006, the number of immigrants in Spain grew from
500,000 to more than 5 million. This research project analyzes how discourses of racism, xenophobia, and otherness permeate
government policies created in response to this dynamic, physical structures erected to impede the arrival of immigrants
into Spanish territory, and other forms of cultural production. As one specific example, an 8.4 km border fence surrounding
the Spanish enclave of Ceuta was constructed in 1993. This border fence was built as physical barrier to stop smuggling
and “illegal” immigration. Another example of the contentious nature of Spain’s racialized policies is its lack to recognize the
lives of its black inhabitants. Is the nature of 21st century Spanish national identity inclusivist, exclusivist, or assimilationist?
Utilizing Gloria Anzaldua’s conceptualization of the borderlands and Du Bois’ “problem of the color line” this presentation will
analyze how racism and its power structures are relevant to Spain’s ongoing debate of integrating immigrants in its national
identity.
MEGAN M. DOTTERWEICH and Christopher Chambers
Rising global temperatures could have profound effects on marine fishes. The Atlantic silverside, Menidia menidia, is a key
prey species in the food web of coastal habitats of the NW Atlantic. Spawning in late spring to mid-summer, its early life-stages
(ELS) experience a wide range of varying thermal habitats. As an ectotherm, we expect many of its vital rates to vary directly
with temperature, but the functional form of responses of silverside ELS to the full range of thermal habitats has yet to be
conducted. We used an apparatus to experimentally examine the thermal responses of silverside ELS over 40 unique constant
temperatures and a series of oscillating ones. Parent fish were collected from the Sandy Hook Bay (NJ) and strip-spawned
in the laboratory. Eggs were incubated until hatching in either constant or daily fluctuating temperatures mimicking tidal
inundation. Silverside embryos survived across a wide thermal range (12 to 32°C) with decreasing survival at the warmer end
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Spread Em! An iPhone Application to Analyze NBA Point Spreads
DROUGHT INDUCED DISPERSAL IN DIVING BEETLES IN THE WESTERN UNITED STATES
John Graybill and Saturnino Garcia
PATRICK CARROLL and Kate Boersma
The sports betting market is valued between 700 billion and 1 trillion dollars throughout the world. Wagers are placed
legally through casinos, legally online, or illegally through bookies; however, all of these places have a common point spread
for a single game. These values are calculated by experts and can vary up until the game begins. Changes in point spreads
should come from new information that could affect the game, or from the quantities of wagers placed on each side. The goal
of this project is to construct an iPhone application to gather meaningful information on point spreads and betting markets,
specifically for NBA games. Spread Em! will allow users to submit predictions of point spreads for a given NBA game,
compare their predictive abilities with others, and compare their predictions to the official point spreads of Las Vegas. With
enough users the application should help identify how accurate point spreads really are, how good of predictors fans can be,
if changes in point spreads can be identified ahead of time, and if a predictive model can be built for more accurate spreads.
As gaining users will be one of the largest hurdles in this project, there will be a competition held over the course of the NBA
playoffs, rewarding our best predictor with a cash prize.
Drought causes many physical changes to aquatic habitats, including increasing temperatures and decreasing water levels,
which can threaten aquatic invertebrate communities. Some aquatic invertebrates, such as diving beetles, can disperse via
flight to relocate or discover new bodies of water. Despite observations of aquatic beetles flying during drought, little is known
about what actually triggers this dispersal. We examined how decreasing water level and increasing temperature affect diving
beetle dispersal, with a laboratory experiment in incubators. We collected diving beetles in San Diego County, CA, USA and
used dispersal traps to measure dispersal in response to varying temperature and water levels. At the end of the three-week
experiment, we identified beetles to species and examined the relationship between dispersal, physical cues, and speciesspecific dispersal tendencies. We found that both water level and temperature positively affected dispersal; however, there was
no interactive effect. Our results suggest that drought will lead to higher dispersal for aquatic beetles. With drought becoming
more prevalent, drought-induced dispersal could have significant effects on the communities structure making understanding
this phenomena vital.
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Teaching Volcanic Eruptions through the Eight Intelligences in an ELL Classroom:
Abstract
The Effect of Conductivity on Community Composition
KRISTINA KIMSEY, Courtney Cooper and Danielle Michaelis-Castillo
Drought increases conductivity levels in freshwater bodies, but few studies have examined the effects of these changes on
aquatic macroinvertebrate communities. Dispersal is a drought defense mechanism that also has the potential to greatly
influence these ecosystems. Our research aims to study the effects of conductivity on dispersal, including trends in the
timing and direction of dispersal, in aquatic invertebrates. We predicted increased conductivity would cause greater rates
of dispersal in aquatic macroinvertebrate communities and that dispersal would occur earlier in communities exposed to
higher conductivity treatments. We found that high levels of conductivity do indeed increase rates of dispersal in freshwater
invertebrate communities. However, conductivity did not appear to effect the timing of dispersal. Our results give us new
insights into the relationship and allow us to tentatively conclude that conductivity plays a role in aquatic insect dispersal.
Through Action Research, we explored how incorporating the eight intelligences, along with contemporary art and socioconstructivist learning practices, could impact the understanding and material retention regarding volcanic eruptions of
fifth graders in an English Language Learner (ELL) classroom. We predicted that, through incorporating all of Gardner’s
intelligences and Yenawine’s Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), we would be able to engage students in a more effective way
where more learning retention, open speaking, and collaborating would occur. The main activity in this two-day project
involved small groups of students making physical representations of a specific stage in one of two types of volcanic eruptions
(effusive and explosive eruptions), and then later creating a comic square utilizing pictures of their creations to describe their
eruption stage. These comic squares then made up larger comic strips that illustrated the process of the two types of volcanic
eruptions. Students collaborated within their groups to create a presentation of their part to the class. They were assessed
based on how well they explained what the connection of their created model as well as how well they were able to explain
in writing for the comic square. Throughout the process, they were engaged, collaborative, and creative, and the results of the
project suggested that the strategies employed were effective and beneficial. Students spoke out freely, volunteered ideas, and
were excited about their final products.
ABIGAIL MARTIN, Charolette Cassidy and Kate Boersma
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Race, Space & Education’s Place: Education or Incarceration
TIASHA ROGERS and Thomas Reifer
Juvenile delinquency is critically mediated by the intersection of race, space and education’s place. This paper explores the
centrality of race, space and education’s central place in creating/reproducing juvenile delinquency, or fostering agency-laden
education in areas of spatially and racially concentrated neighborhood disadvantage. My main focus is the extent to which
education creates/reproduces juvenile delinquency or fosters agency among young people. My goals is to explore how juvenile
delinquency can be decreased through improving educational systems in these communities. To this end, I explore the
literature on juvenile delinquency, questions of agency and social struggles over education.
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With Gratitude
UC ForumsDoes increased turbidity significantly affect predator evasion behavior
by Fundulus parvipinnis and Poecilia latipinna
JACOB BARRETT and Steven Searcy
Turbidity, a measure of “cloudiness” of water, is caused by particles in the water column that scatter light, and it is a factor
known to affect nearly every aspect of aquatic fauna interactions. Highly turbid waters can be detrimental for organisms
that rely on vision by increasing risk of mortality and reducing foraging success, ultimately limiting growth rates. Although
coastal environments naturally fluctuate in turbidity levels, anthropogenic factors that increase turbidity levels are a significant
concern for ecosystem health. To attempt to study the impacts increased turbidity may have on local estuarine species, I
performed an experiment in the lab to test the following predictions: (1) increased turbidity would decrease the detection
distance of each species in response to a simulated avian predator, (2) increased turbidity would decrease the evasion distance
of each species in response to the simulated predator, and (3) increased turbidity would decrease the evasion speed of
both species in response to the simulated predator. The experiment was carried out on two local estuarine fish species, the
California killifish (Fundulus parvipinnis) and the sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna). The results of this experiment validated
the predictions: increased turbidity decreased the detection distance, evasion distance and evasion speed of the two fish
species in response to a simulated avian predator. This study shows that increased turbidity as a result of anthropogenic
activity is a significant concern for local species, and the impact of turbidity on Southern California ecosystems is a topic
worth investigating further.
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Many thanks to faculty across all disciplines for their dedicated mentoring of undergraduate students in research, scholarship
and creative works. We would especially like to acknowledge the 2017 recipients of the Outstanding Undergraduate Research
Mentor Award, Dr. Joseph Provost (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Arts and Sciences) and Dr. Jennifer
Prairie (Department of Environmental and Ocean Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences), as well as all the mentors that
oversaw the student projects and mentored them through the CC URC submission process.
Special thanks go to Marcy Alyn for the design of the brochure, flyers and signage, Annie O’Brien for the production of the
abstract book, Avi Badwal, Bryan Teague & Michael O’Brien for creating the CC URC abstract function in the mySDMobile
app, Steffanie Hoie and Christopher Wray for creating the online abstract portal and mySanDiego page, Shahra Meshkaty
and Allen Wynar at Instructional Media Services for leading the poster design workshops and providing poster printing,
Toñis Manriquez & Michael Dils for assistance with the set-up and the staff at the Office of Undergraduate Research, Maritza
Castellanos, Rachelle Martinez and Joylene Aguirre for their enthusiasm and commitment to putting the entire event together.
Support for Creative Collaborations Undergraduate Research Conference comes from the Office of the Executive Vice President
and Provost and from the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The Office of Undergraduate Research was supported in
part by a grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation. The research conducted by the students is supported by generous donors
and foundations, including the McCarthy and the Farrell Families, the Doheny Family Foundation, Coca-Cola Scholars
Program, ALSAM, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation (Beckman Scholars Program), the National Science Foundation,
the Pulitzer Center, and various industry partners including ViaSat, Introtech and Advantageous Systems LLC., Cubic Defense
Applications and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.
Raise Your Voice: Social, Environmental and Educational Concerns, a Case Study of
Adult Students in Pilcopata, Peru
SHIREEN KARIMI and Katie MacDonald
Students of higher education in the rural community of Pilcopata, Peru participated in a study to determine what they
percieved to be largest environmental and social concerns, as well as the largest obstacles facing their daily lives as students.
Indigenous methodologies and PAR (participatory action research) were used whilst conducting research and methods of
data collection involved: photovoice, focus groups, as well as semi-structured interviews. Significant environmental concerns
included: trash in the streets, and contaminated water. The most pressing social concerns included: alcoholism and a lack of
sexual education amongst the student population. Finally, the largest obstacles to daily life for students included: unorganized
and unreliable teachers, as well as the difficulty of juggling both classes and work. The possible solutions to these concerns
were largely centered around the involvement of several organizations in town and the idea that these organizations must be
willing to work with each other in order to create change.
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